At a university where football and men’s basketball reigns supreme in athletics, a club team is - and has been - making its own noise.
The Michigan State women’s club soccer team has been a quiet powerhouse on campus, though not silent in the national scene. The team won national championships in 2012 and 2015, and is coming off consecutive top-8 finishes at Nationals.
“We just hope to get past that and make it a little bit further this year,” senior defender and club President Lindsay Heise said.
And if the team's fans don't believe they have what it takes to break that barrier and get past the top-eight, look no further than their regular season record this season: 9-0-1 while out-scoring opponents by a colossal margin of 60-3.
College club teams offer a more relaxed, yet competitive, alternative than playing varsity. To join the club team at Michigan State, fees are usually around $300. Postseason play has become routine, making fundraising pivotal to be able to travel. The team carries around 25 players, plus developmental players that practice with the team.
Heise and junior forward and Vice President Emily Woods both chose to play club soccer at MSU after deciding that there wasn’t a right fit for them elsewhere. For Heine, the choice was made even easier by coming to Michigan State.
“I knew the club coach (Dan Jury) going into it because he was my youth coach,” Heise said.
Many teams in college and university club soccer are player-led with no official coach leading the way. MSU has Dan Jury heading the team in an official capacity, much to the liking of the players.
“We’re fortunate enough to have a really experienced coach,” Woods said. “He’s been (coaching) for 18-20 years. We play teams that don’t have coaches, so I think that’s why we’re able to come together because we have someone there who’s leading us and can see it from an outside perspective as opposed to having a player-coach.”
After a stellar regular season, the team earned the right to play at the regional tournament in Indianapolis. Seeding is based on a season-long point system that rewards teams with six points for a win, a point for every goal scored up to three, and one extra point for a shutout, for a total of 10 points up for grabs in each game.
Michigan State tallied 86 points in the regular season, earning a bid to the regional tournament in Westfield, Indiana. At regionals, three spots were up for grabs to receive an automatic bid to nationals: the regional champ, as well as the top two point-getters.
“Going in we knew that if we wanted to get a nationals automatic bid, we would have to make sure we essentially maxed out (our points) in those games,” Woods said.
Michigan State secured nine points in a 4-1 victory over Notre Dame, and 10 points in a 3-0 win over Wisconsin, before falling to Purdue in the semi-finals 2-0.
This was enough to grab an automatic bid into nationals in Round Rock, Texas from November 21-23, where the team has unfinished business to attend to after two straight Elite Eight finishes.
“The girls that are all on the team, we all want to be here,” Woods said. “We all chose to be here. We all have a goal we want to accomplish.”