Oakland Falls to No. 3 Seed Michigan State, 1-0. in NCAA Tournament

EAST LANSING, Mich. - Joey Tinnion and Gavin Hoy each had two shots on goal and Wes Mink made five saves as the Oakland men's soccer team fell to No. 3 seed Michigan State, 1-0, in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday. The Golden Grizzlies outshot the Spartans 16-14, but were tied with MSU at 6-6 in shots on goal.

"I thought our guys were fantastic today," said coach Eric Pogue. "It's a game of putting your opportunities away and today we didn't do that but it doesn't take away from how well we played. I thought except for a few stretches in the game that we played very very well and created a number of opportunities. We showed ourselves well as a team and couldn't be more proud of the guys. Their effort, their work rate even down a goal we still battled hard and created a number of chances but sometimes the ball doesn't fall your way. Credit to Michigan State as they are a good team but I thought we're a good team as well."

Michigan State scored the lone goal in the 67th minute as Zach Carroll headed in a corner kick by Dewey Lewis for his fifth of the season. The Golden Grizzlies would continue pressure as Tinnion had a chance to equalize the game in the 71st minute, but MSU's keeper Zach Bennett made a diving save to keep the score at 1-0.

The teams played to a scoreless first half with MSU holding a 10-8 advantage in shots, but the teams were tied 4-4 in shots on goal. In the eighth minute, Tinnion would take a shot inside the box but Bennett was able to make a finger-tip save. Two minutes later, Gerald Ben would fire a ball from 15 yards away that hit the crossbar and was cleared by Michigan State.

Mink ends the season with a 10-5-3 record while Bennett moves to 12-4-5 on the season. The Golden Grizzlies finish 2014 with a 10-7-3 record and made the second round on the NCAA Tournament for only the second time in the Division I era.

**Release courtesy of Oakland Athletic Communications.