EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Alicia Hudson scored her first goal of the season and the Bellarmine Field Hockey team put up a valiant defensive effort, but the Knights came up short in a 2-1 road loss to the Michigan State Spartans Saturday afternoon.  With the result, the Knights drop to 0-3 on the season and 0-3 all-time against the Spartans.  Michigan State improves to 2-1 on the season.

Despite finding no initial offense, the Knights' defense put on a good showing early on, keeping the Spartans off the board for the first 10 minutes of the match in the face of an onslaught of action in their end of the field.  Michigan State eventually found the back of the net with 4:15 remaining to take the early 1-0 lead, and then upped their lead to 2-0 with a goal 41 seconds into the second quarter.

The Knights found their first major opportunity in the form of a penalty corner with 9:07 remaining in the second quarter, but were unable to get off a shot.  Following more stout defense, the Knights' offense finally broke through with 3:20 remaining in the third, as Hudson converted a penalty corner off an insertion from Brooke Buchanan to cut Michigan State's lead to 2-1 going into the fourth quarter.  Bellarmine's defense continued to hold steady despite five penalty corner opportunities for the Spartans, allowing the offense one more chance at MSU's end of the field, but the Knights could not find the equalizer.

The Spartans outshot the Knights 15-2, including an 8-1 advantage in shots on goal and an 8-2 advantage in penalty corners.  Lilli Vera accounted for Bellarmine's first shot, which came in the second quarter.  Kailey Workman recorded six saves on the afternoon.

The Knights will remain on the road, heading to Ann Arbor, Mich. to take on the Michigan Wolverines on Sunday, September 7 at 1 PM ET.

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