MSU women's soccer braces for 'perfect' frigid temps in second-round NCAA tourney matchup with TCU

EAST LANSING – Michigan State’s women’s soccer team probably shouldn’t be headed to South Bend, Indiana, for Friday afternoon’s second-round NCAA tournament match against TCU. The Spartans probably should have been better than a 4 seed, with a more favorable path than, after hosting one match last week, playing in a four-team pod hosted by top-seed Notre Dame.

That’s no way to treat the outright Big Ten champions. But, as MSU coach Jeff Hosler noted, thus is life as the newbies on the scene.

“We're here now. We're the newcomer to this party on Friday,” Hosler said ahead of the 2 p.m. date with TCU, which can be streamed on ESPN+. “TCU has been doing this the last few years. Santa Clara (which faces Notre Dame) has been doing it. Notre Dame is a rightful 1 seed with the way they've been playing and they're just steamrolling people right now. So we're just looking to go and have that same mentality we've had all year. Be a newcomer, play loose, play hard. And let our work and performance do the rest.”

That’s worked well. The Spartans stormed through the Big Ten regular season unbeaten (8-0-1), before losing to Penn State, 3-2, in the Big Ten tournament final. That result that made the Nittany Lions a 2 seed in the NCAA tournament and dropped MSU to a 4, a decision that appears to have been an overreliance on the RPI rankings and conference tournament results.

MSU paid for that by having to face a tough and experienced 13-seed Milwaukee team in the first round, a game MSU won, 3-2, in overtime last Friday at DeMartin Stadium.

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Now comes a stiffer test in 5 seed TCU (13-4-5), which Hosler described as a mirror image of the Spartans (17-2-3) — but with more NCAA tournament experience, having reached the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight, respectively, the past two seasons.

“Stylistically, they’re similar to us,” Hosler said. “In fact, if you go through analytics, they’re the team most like us in terms of possession, style of play. They do a good job of midfielders looking like forwards or looking like backs and backs looking like wingers. Really good job in possession creating overloads, which can be complicated and they draw you out and then they get vertical. They're great athletes, they have been getting to goal. So stylistically, I think fairly similar. They're very good on set pieces as well, attacking set pieces. They've got some really great aerial threats. They score a good number of goals that way.

“I think it's going be a matter of who has the ball, who's dictating some of that tempo. And I think for us, I think taking some territory and having a little bit more pressure will be beneficial.”

MORE: Couch: How MSU's women's soccer program so quickly changed course and became Big Ten champions

Hosler said that, much like the NCAA basketball tournament, coaches have to prepare for the weekend, not just one match. Because if MSU were to win Friday, it would face the winner of Notre Dame and 8 seed Santa Clara at 6:30 p.m. Sunday in South Bend.

“You have to look to some of that. I wouldn't say looking ahead to it, but you have to be aware of it to set yourself up,” Hosler said. “Depending on how the game situation is on a Friday, you may also have to manage specific players for that matchup on Sunday."

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While the seed might not be ideal, the location isn’t all that bad. For example, another 4 seed, Northwestern, is being sent out west. MSU gets the benefit of drivable games for its fans and weather that’ll be more familiar to the Spartans than their Fort Worth, Texas-based opponent on Friday.

“I think we're in a good place, where we're set up for a full week now (to prepare) and we get to play (in our climate),” Hosler said. “I mean it looks like it's supposed to, the high on Friday in South Bend is supposed to be like it feels like a temperature of 7 degrees. So that's perfect for us.”

Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: MSU women's soccer braces for cold temps, TCU in NCAA tournament match