Men's Soccer Closes Out Regular Season at Michigan State

NORTHWESTERN MEN'S SOCCER: GAME INFORMATION
DATE	OPPONENT	TIME	LOCATION	WATCH	LIVE STATS
Sunday, October 30	Michigan State	Noon CT	DeMartin Soccer Complex East Lansing, Mich.	B1G+	Live Stats
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EAST LANSING, Mich. –– Northwestern Men's Soccer (2-8-5, 0-5-2) finishes up its regular season schedule Sunday when it takes on the Michigan State Spartans (6-7-2, 3-3-1) in East Lansing. Sunday's contest will have major Big Ten Tournament implications, with NU trailing Michigan by two points with one game remaining. The Wildcats need two outcomes to secure a berth in the Big Ten Men's Soccer Tournament.

• Northwestern WIN against Michigan State
• Michigan LOSS against Penn State

Last time out against Wisconsin, the Wildcats fell to the Badgers 1-0 behind a goal from Max Keenan in the 15th minute. The Wildcats responded well to the goal, but were unable to find an equalizer. NU outshot UW 16-8, including a 5-3 advantage in shots on goal, but couldn't find the back of the net. 

'Cat Facts

• Eleven 'Cats have tallied a goal this season (Ethan Dudley, Jason Gajadhar, Justin Weiss, Vicente Castro, Bardia Kimiavi, Andrew Stevens, Eric Smits, Danh Tran, and Joseph Arena), the most since 2019
• Five true first-years have seen action this year for Northwestern (Paul Walters, Christopher Thaggard, Nigel Prince, Jayvin Van Deventer, and Jason Gajadhar)
• Ethan Dudley is the only Wildcat to start every game this season, and has gone all 90 minutes in 14 of Northwestern's 15 contests
• Seven 'Cats have appeared in all fifteen games this year (Ethan Dudley, Brandon Clagette, Andrew Stevens, Bardia Kimiavi, Rom Brown, Paul Son, and Jayvin Van Deventer)
• NU's four leaders in minutes played are all transfers (Ethan Dudley, Brandon Clagette, Andrew Stevens, and Christian Garner)

MSU stands in fifth place in the Big Ten with ten points. With a win and some help, the Spartans could potentially finish in fourth place and host the first round of the Big Ten Tournament in East Lansing. Michigan State fell to then-No. 13 Ohio State last time out, 2-1 at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium Tuesday night.  The Spartans present a balanced goalscoring attack, with twelve goalscorers so far this season. Greyson Mercer leads the team in goals with four, and is tied for the team-lead in points with Will Perkins and Jonathan Stout. Owen Finnerty has gotten the lion's share of minutes at goalkeeper, starting every game so far, just missing fourteen minutes of action all year.

The Spartans hold the all-time advantage in the series, but NU took last year's meeting 3-1 on the last day of the regular season to qualify for last season's Big Ten Tournament.