Laura Heyboer continued her quest for the record books at the expense of Oakland women’s soccer team’s eight-game unbeaten streak.

The Michigan State junior forward scored both goals as the Golden Grizzlies lost to the Spartans, 2-0, Thursday at the OU Soccer Field.

Heyboer began the scoring in the 21^st minute on a penalty kick and finished the game off on a cross in the 78^th minute for her 10^th goal of the year.  Her two goals put her in a tie for first as Michigan State’s career goals leader.

Heyboer’s first goal came after she was brought down to the pitch by Oakland defender Alyssa Fulton in the box.  Michigan State elected to use Heyboer for the penalty kick and she scored, putting the Spartans (8-3-2) up 1-0.

The second goal came off an Oakland turnover, as Olivia Stander came up with the ball.  She went across the field to Heyboer, who finished the play to put the Golden Grizzlies (7-5-2) in a 2-0 hole.

“I think the team worked really hard.  We had some players who didn’t play up to their best, which hurt us, but overall, we had a few players who played really well,” Oakland coach Nick O’Shea said.  “We created a lot of chances but we didn’t score.  And they have an excellent forward (in Heyboer), and she’s been scoring her whole life.  We’re just trying to rest some players for our upcoming conference games.  We played as good as we had been on our winning streak.  We just played a really good team today.”

Oakland forward Dani Haelewyn led the way for the Grizzlies’ offense with three shots on goal and six overall.

“We worked really hard,” Haelewyn said.  “A few missed opportunities; primarily we weren’t able to put it in the back of the net.  Defensively and offensively, we worked really well together at possessing the ball, but we came up short.”

With the non-conference regular season behind them, the Grizzlies will look to bounce back as they resume conference play on Saturday in Fort Wayne, Ind., against IPFW.  Oakland’s home schedule will wrap up with IUPUI in Pontiac on Oct. 22, and Western Illinois on Oct. 24.

The Grizzlies have five remaining conference games in total as they sit atop the Summit League standings (3-0-1) by three points over Oral Roberts, South Dakota State and Western Illinois. Oakland has to finish in the top four in the conference to qualify for the Summit League Tournament, where the winner gains an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

“We just have to get our head around (the loss) and realize it’s a big game,” Haelewyn said of Saturday’s match.  “Conference games are what we’re here for and we strive to win. We’re just going to go out and practice real hard tomorrow and get ourselves prepared mentally and physically and get ourselves ready.  We just got to work really hard and get back into a winning streak.”

The loss is the first in more than a month for Oakland.  The Grizzlies were last defeated by Dayton, 1-0, on Sept. 5.