Women’s Soccer Earns First National Ranking Since 2009

EAST LANSING, Mich. – For the first time since the 2009 season, the Michigan State women’s soccer program garnered national rankings according to United Soccer Coaches and TopDrawerSoccer, coming in at No. 15 and No. 22, respectively, both organizations announced Tuesday.
 

The Green & White appear in the national polls for the first time since Sept. 29, 2009, when the Spartans reached the nation’s No. 20 mark. MSU’s 2009 squad started the year with a blistering 7-0-2 overall record and had just completed a stunning upset of Penn State at DeMartin Stadium two days prior to the ranking announcement. Michigan State finished the 2009 season with an 11-5-4 record, making the program’s most recent NCAA Tournament appearance in the process.
 
Founded in 1941 and based in Kansas City, Missouri, United Soccer Coaches has grown into the world’s largest soccer coaches’ organization that serves members at every level of the game. Each week, a panel of eight voters ranks the 25 best women’s college soccer teams in the nation, with the first-place team receiving 25 points, the second-place team earning 24 points, and so on. TopDrawerSoccer.com, one of the premier services in the nation dedicated to the coverage of college soccer, utilizes internal polling to rank and publish the nation’s top-25 teams.
 
This season, Michigan State is off to its most dominant start to Big Ten play in program history, going an undefeated 5-0-1 with four games left to play. MSU owns a 10-1-3 overall record on the year, with its only loss coming on the road at Arkansas, which came in at No. 7 in Tuesday’s United Soccer Coaches poll. The Spartans have already matched both their overall and conference win totals from a season ago and currently sit in a tie atop the Big Ten standings with No. 5 Northwestern.
 
Michigan State is coming off a dominant 2-0 win over archrival Michigan, dispatching with the school down the road in front of a program-record crowd of 3,022 Spartan faithful. Sophomore forward Jordyn Wickes notched the game-winning score in the 40th minute of work, while senior…