EAST LANSING, Mich. - Laura Heyboer scored just over four minutes into overtime as the Michigan State women’s soccer team defeated Penn State, 3-2, on Sunday (Sept. 27) at DeMartin Stadium. Th e win, MSU’s second  consecutive at home over Big Ten-power Penn State, improves the Spartans’ record to 7-0-2 and 1-0 in the  conference.

“Penn State is such a good team and they put a lot of pressure on us in that last half hour and our midfi eld started to wear down and our backs tightened up a bit,” said MSU head coach Tom Saxton. “Going into overtime, we told the kids to keep defending conservatively, and we’ll get some breaks on counter attacks and that proved to be true.”

Playing without leading scorer Lauren Hill and losing Lauren Sinacola to an injury late in the game, the Spartans were further forced to shuffl e their lineup as the game went into overtime. Freshman Kori Reinhart, playing in her fi rst career game for MSU, made the most of her opportunity as she found a streaking Heyboer for the game-winning goal in the 95th minute. Heyboer took the pass just past midfi eld and outraced the PSU defender and beat goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher to give MSU a 3-2 win.

“Kori played a perfect pass and all I had to do was run past my defender and just put it in,” said Heyboer, who fi nished the game with four points.

The two teams traded chances early on in the fi rst half, with MSU’s fi rst quality scoring opportunity coming in the 14th minute off a corner kick. Sinacola served the ball into the box where Samantha Cook was able to head it toward the net, but Neaher made the save. Th e Spartans sustained their off ensive pressure on the Nittany Lions and then capitalized in the 22nd minute to take a 1-0 lead when Heyboer set up Sinacola. Heyboer took control of the ball inside the penalty area to the left of net and sent a perfect pass to Sinacola, who headed it in for her second goal of the season.

The Nittany Lions closed the half outshooting MSU, 7-0, after the Spartan goal and a diving save by Jill Flietstra with under five minutes to play in the stanza preserved the half-time lead for the Spartans.

Less than five minutes into the second half, a pair of Spartan freshmen teamed up to extend MSU’s lead to 2-0. Heyboer started the play down low, feeding Jordan Mueller from the right side of the PSU net. Mueller then sent the ball to fellow freshman Olivia Stander who put the it in the upper right corner for her second goal of the year.

“Olivia stepped up for Hill today and played great,” Saxton said.

The Spartans two-goal lead proved to be sort lived; however, as the Nittany Lions struck back with two goals less than 10 minutes apart. PSU’s Katie Schoepfer cut the lead in half at 59:33 mark, and then Christine Nairn tied the game in the 69th minute with a shot from 25 yards out.

Penn State kept the pressure on the Spartans through the remainder of the second half, but both keepers made timely saves to send the game into overtime.

The Nittany Lions (4-5-1) outshot MSU by a count of 19-12 for the game.

The Spartans will play a pair of Big Ten road games next weekend, taking on Indiana on Friday (Oct. 2) and Purdue on Sunday (Oct. 4).