After coming up just short against the Washington Huskies by way of penalty kicks in Sunday’s dramatic Big Ten Championship bout; the 12-3-6 Michigan State Women’s Soccer squad has punched their ticket to the 2025 NCAA Tournament. The Spartans were also runners-up in the Big Ten regular season standings, with a 7-1-3 conference record.
Despite missing out on the automatic bid awarded to each conference champion, MSU has earned an at-large bid and will be a 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The ranking
is good for the highest seed in the Big Ten, program history; and, interestingly, a higher seed than Washington (the Huskies are on the 4-seed line). Michigan State’s first round draw will be a home matchup with the University of Milwaukee at home in East Lansing. The game will kick off this Friday at 6:00pm at DeMartin Stadium.
For the Spartans, it will be their eighth overall NCAA Tournament appearance, and fourth in a row under Head Coach Jeff Hosler. Hosler said of MSU’s draw: “We’re so thrilled with the seed… it’s ideal because if we find ourselves in the second weekend, we get to play right here at DeMartin.” For a squad that has lost in the Sweet Sixteen each of the past two seasons, the potential to have second and third round games on their home turf could prove to be a key advantage in making a deeper postseason run.
In true Tom Izzo fashion, Hosler’s team has played one of the hardest schedules in the nation this season, and will be no stranger to several of the teams in the field of 64. Nine Big Ten teams qualified for the tournament, and MSU has played seven of them. How did they fare? 3-2-2, with wins over Wisconsin, Illinois, and Washington, losses to Iowa and Washington, and ties against UCLA and Ohio State. Additionally, of the Spartans’ seven non-conference opponents, five are in the big dance- in Colorado, Dayton, Xavier, Notre Dame, and Milwaukee (State went 1-2-2 against these five). Battle-tested would be an understatement for the 2025 Women’s Soccer team.
That one win out of the five best non-conference games for Michigan State was against none other than State’s first round tournament matchup- Milwaukee.
The Milwaukee Panthers roll into Friday boasting a 13-4-3 overall record, and are the champions of their conference- the Horizon League- for the eighth (!) straight year. The two squads met early in the season on August 24, and Michigan State took home the win to the tune of a 9-0 rout. While this should certainly inspire some confidence in the green and white, it is important to note that the Panthers have not lost a single game since August. Talk about a team getting hot at the right time.
Should the Spartans best Milwaukee at home Friday evening, they would move on to the winner 0f 7-seed Wake Forest and South Carolina. Also finding themselves in MSU’s region are Dayton, 6-seed Xavier, and 3-seed Colorado, all teams Michigan State has familiarity with.
Also on the soccer pitch, the NCAA Tournament field has been announced for the Men’s side of things, and unfortunately Michigan State has not made the cut. The Men’s team finished out the 2025 campaign with a 5-8-3 record, and a tight 4-3 loss to number 1 Maryland at home this past Friday.
Now, back to the ladies. For a team in the midst of one of the best multi-season stretches in MSU Women’s Soccer history, the 2025 group certainly feels primed to make a deep run this November. Be sure to stay up-to-date with this special squad of soccer Spartans as their postseason begins this Friday night and hopefully ends with a trip to Kansas City for the College Cup. Go Green!
