Hoosiers travel to East Lansing to take on rival Spartans

With last weekend's loss to the No. 18 Michigan Wolverines in the Hoosiers' rearview mirror, IU will travel to East Lansing, Mich., to take on the Michigan State Spartans (5-10, 0-4 Big Ten) on Saturday. \n"A loss is never easy to deal with as a team," said junior midfielder Meredith Brown. "Our main focus is to go out this week and practice on what we did wrong so we can come out against Michigan State and get a win." \nThe No. 13 Hoosiers (13-3, 3-1 Big Ten) fell to the Wolverines last Sunday in a one-goal loss. But in their first practice after the loss on Tuesday, the Hoosiers weren't dwelling on the defeat.\n"The girls were on a pretty even keel and were putting the past behind them and looking ahead," IU assistant coach Gina Lucido said. "I was pleased to see they weren't carrying last weekend into what lies ahead of us." \nWhat lies ahead of the Hoosiers is a shadow of last year's Spartan team. When the Hoosiers defeated the Spartans 3-2 in double overtime last season, Michigan State was No. 6 in the nation. After losing several players from last year's squad, the Spartans find themselves without a Big Ten victory this season.\n"They are always our nemesis," Lucido said of the Spartans. "There is always a ton of passion, heart and drama in the games."\nThe Spartans hold an 8-1 all-time advantage in the series, but the lone victory did come last season.\nRemembering last year's victory, Brown said the Spartans were "always our biggest rivals because they always beat us and were really cocky."\nBut the Hoosiers were the ones who prevailed in the double-over thriller. Now the Hoosiers find themselves in the Goliath position to the Spartan's David but are still expecting a tough match.\n"Even though they don't have as good of a record, I'm expecting them to come out and be gunning for us," junior goalkeeper Haley Exner said.\nIn practice this week, the Hoosiers made minor adjustments in their game plan for the weekend's game.\n"We really don't have a lot to fix," Brown said. "We want to switch our game around a little so they don't know what to expect."\nWith the tough loss behind them and two Big Ten regular season games left in the season, the Hoosiers find themselves tied for first place in their conference.\n"It was a loss, but we're not out of this. This is not the end of our season," Exner said. "I am still very confident in our team and our abilities to win"