MSU Women’s Club Soccer playing in national tournament

EAST LANSING, Mich. (WILX) - Michigan State’s D1 Women’s soccer team isn’t the only one competing for a national title.

The Spartans’ club team is in Round Rock, TX this week for their national tournament.

A national tournament appearance isn’t just a yearly goal for Michigan State Women’s Club Soccer Coach Dan Jury and his team: it’s an expectation.

“It’s nice to be back,” Jury told News 10 last week. “We won national championships in 2012 and 2015 and then we’ve had some down here since then, so it’s nice to be going back and getting back to what we’re used to as a program.”

“Such a cool feeling,” said Junior Defender Paige Buranosky. “It’s a very rewarding feeling I would say, just because of my years here, we haven’t been to nationals and just winning a regional is a very cool and rewarding feeling.”

It’s been a long time coming for the Spartans; Jury says he took some time during the COVID-19 pandemic to figure out how to get his team back to nationals.

“It really came down to character. You know, we weren’t focus on the character the players we weren’t focused on improving ourselves.”

Character and positivity; Buranosky has embraced that this year. She’s been sidelined with an injury for the last few weeks.

“Everyone has a role, whether you’re on the field, whether you’re off, and all I can do is be here supportive and tear my team on,” she said. “Cheering each other on no matter the minutes that we get, I think that has helped us a lot.”

When the Spartans set foot on the pitch for their first game tomorrow, they know their opponents won’t make it easy.

“They’re gonna give it a hundred percent,” said Buranosky. “So we can’t go in there expecting a win. I think every team has a fair shot. And so do we.”

“If you talk to these guys about ‘don’t worry about winning and losing’ and all that, They’re not gonna hear any of it,” said Jury.

“They want to win as bad as anybody else.”

The Spartans have group games Thursday before they enter the knockout stages on Friday and Saturday.

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