Michigan State gets its first road test of the season with a trip to No. 7/8 North Carolina, and the Spartans arrive in Chapel Hill with some early momentum and a lot of familiar firepower.
MSU is 2-0 after opening with a 2-0 win over [RV] Xavier and following that with a 1-0 victory against Loyola (Chicago). That start has pushed the Spartans to No. 5 in the United Soccer Coaches poll and No. 6 in Top Drawer Soccer.
They began the season at No. 7 in both rankings. North Carolina, meanwhile, is 3-0 after home wins over Fairfield, 4-0, and Quinnipiac, 8-0, before a 2-0 road win at Arkansas on Thursday.
It’s only the second all-time meeting between the programs.
The Tar Heels are now led by Damon Nahas, who was named head coach in December of 2024 after serving as interim coach during the title run that season. MSU, for its part, is 2-0 for the first time since 2023.
In the last two seasons, the Spartans opened with a win and then settled for ties in their second game, including a 2-2 draw at Arkansas in 2024 and a 0-0 tie against Dayton in 2025. The last time Michigan State started with consecutive shutouts was 2022, when it beat Bowling Green 2-0 and tied Cincinnati 0-0.
Against Loyola on Wednesday, the Spartans controlled the game almost from start to finish, finishing with a 21-3 advantage in shot attempts and a 14-2 edge in corners. It was MSU’s highest shot-attempt total since a 22-shot outing against Illinois on 8/19, and the 14 corners matched its best mark from last season, first set in the opener at Colorado on 8/14.
That kind of pressure is nothing new for a team that brought back 47 goals and 36 assists from last year’s offense, an 86% return from a group that led the Big Ten in total goals with 57 and finished first in scoring offense at 2.24 goals per game. Ten starters are back in 2026, and the Spartans still have the league’s proven names leading the way.
Charlotte native Kennedy Bell enters the matchup as the reigning Big Ten Forward of the Year, a unanimous First Team All-Big Ten pick and a Third Team United Soccer Coaches All-American. She was the conference’s regular-season scoring champion and paced MSU in goals with 11 and points with 29.
Kayla Briggs has already made her presence felt again this season. She scored the lone goal against Loyola and has the game-winner in both of Michigan State’s victories.
Last year, she led the Spartans with five game-winning goals, tied for fourth-most in a single season in school history. She also finished second on the team in points with 23, tied for the team lead in assists with seven, ranked second in goals with eight, and converted both of her penalty-kick attempts.
Bell and Emerson Sargeant were both named to the Hermann Trophy Forwards to Watch list on Aug. 10, while Briggs landed on the Midfielders to Watch list on Aug. 7. Each was an All-Region selection a year ago.
Senior Bella Najera adds another veteran layer to the attack. She is a three-time All-Big Ten selection and was the conference’s Freshman of the Year in 2023.
She is one of four Spartans in program history to earn All-Big Ten honors three times. Last season, Najera tied for second on the team with eight goals, ranked second with five assists and third with 21 points.
Two of her goals were game-tying strikes and two were game-winners.
In goal, Noelle Henning has opened her sophomore season with back-to-back shutouts. She made five saves against Xavier and one against Loyola, giving her 10 career shutouts and a share of 10th place in the MSU record book. Henning is also a Team Canada candidate for the 2026 U20 Women’s World Cup, scheduled for Sept. 5-27 in Poland.
In Other News...
Michigan State Just Got A Brutal Level Of National Disrespect
The early national read on Michigan State is about as harsh as it gets, with preseason win totals sitting around 3.5 and FOX Sports analyst RJ Young slotting the Spartans at No. 120 out of 138 FBS teams. It is the kind of projection that makes the challenge in Pat Fitzgeralds first year look steep before the season even starts, especially in a Big Ten that rarely gives anyone much room to ease in.
Still, there is more reason for pause than the rankings suggest. Michigan State brings back key players and staff from last year, and the expectation inside the program is that both the offense and defense can take a step forward. Whether that translates into a better record than outsiders expect is the question hanging over this team, and it is a big one. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan State Camp Standouts Are Forcing Tough Depth Chart Decisions
Michigan States fall camp has already started sorting out a roster full of new faces, and a handful of players are making the staff think harder than expected about how this seasons depth chart should look. Jayden Savoury, Eli Coenen, Anelu Lafaele, Kenny Soares Jr. and Cam Edwards have all drawn attention in camp, each offering something that suggests a bigger role could be coming once the games count.
For a team trying to blend fresh additions with returning pieces, those kinds of early standouts matter because they can change the conversation in a hurry. Some have flashed the kind of progress that builds on what they showed before, while others are making noise just by how quickly theyve adapted, and the real question now is how many of them can turn a strong camp into meaningful snaps when the season opens. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan States New AD Is Challenging How The Spartans Compete
Dan Bartholomae is only a short time into his new role at Michigan State, but he is already signaling that the Spartans competitive future will be shaped as much by business strategy as by what happens on the field or court. In his first public comments as athletic director, Bartholomae laid out a clear priority list centered on NIL spending, revenue sharing and how Michigan State stacks up against the rest of the Big Ten, where the financial arms race has become part of the weekly competition.
He also framed the challenge in broader terms, saying roster development has to be part of the equation if Michigan State wants to climb from the middle of the league toward the top half and, eventually, the top third. Bartholomae pointed to his track record at Western Michigan, where he helped increase donor contributions, and voiced support for Spartan Ventures, the private company tied to Michigan State athletics, as another piece of the push to keep the Spartans moving forward. [Read more 🡒]