MSU Men’s Soccer Opens the Season with Exhibition against Lawrence Tech

EAST LANSING, Mich. – Michigan State men’s soccer opens the exhibition portion of the schedule against Lawrence Tech on Thursday, Aug. 11 at 7 p.m. at DeMartin Stadium.

“We have a lot of returning guys who know what we are trying to do. Our freshmen are talented; they have somethings to learn but they will continue to push as well. We are really excited to get going,” MSU head coach Damon Cleansing said. “We get to play Lawrence Tech; (head coach) Will Dyer does a great job there. We get to manage everyone minutes in those games, so no one will play more than 45 minutes.”

This is the first of three exhibitions for the Spartans also facing Butler on Sunday, Aug. 14 and Pitt on Friday, Aug. 19.

The Spartans split the first day of training into two sessions. In the morning, MSU focus more on fitness assessment. In the afternoon, the Michigan State squad turned the attention to strategy and technical work.

“First we did a little fitness assessment, and I think the team came back in good form, which is good so we can just focus on soccer,”  Rensing said. “We give credit to the guys and the leaders for putting us in a good spot. Credit to (Director of Sports Science for Olympic Sports) Molly Munz and our summer crew that got us ready.”

The Spartans return captains and seniors Jack Beck, Will Perkins and Louis Sala. Beck is a two-time All-Big Ten midfielder, earning first team honors last season. The 2021 MSU team finished the season with a 6-9-2 overall record and were 2-4-2 in Big Ten action.

Michigan State opens the regular season against Army on Friday, Aug. 26 at 7 p.m. at DeMartin Stadium.