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Milwaukee will play in weekend tournament at Wisconsin

Sept. 2, 2008

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The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men's soccer team starts September with another weekend of tournament play, heading to Madison for the Middleton Sports & Fitness Invitational. The Panthers start the action in the Wisconsin Badgers annual tournament Friday against Dayton, taking on the Flyers at 5 p.m. The team then closes out the weekend with a highly-anticipated showdown against nationally-ranked Santa Clara Sunday at noon. The Broncos were ranked in the top five in all of the national preseason polls - including No. 1 in one of the polls - before a rough start last weekend.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENT:
DAYTON: The Flyers are off to a hot start in 2008, going 2-0 at their season-opening tournament, posting a 3-1 win over Denver and a 1-0 shutout of Wright State. Dayton posted a 10-4-5 record and advanced to the conference tournament in 2007, where it was knocked out in the quarterfinals on penalty kicks against Final Four participant UMass. The Flyers finished the season on a six-game unbeaten streak.

Junior Alex Torda was named to the 2008 Atlantic 10 Preseason All-Conference team. Named UD's Most Valuable Player in 2007, Torda scored six goals and had five assists, tallying 17 points as a midfielder during his sophomore season with those efforts earning him First Team All-Atlantic 10 honors. A team that returns nine starters, Dayton has been picked to finish fifth in the Atlantic 10.

SANTA CLARA: The Broncos finished the 2007 season with a 16-2-4 record and a 10-0-2 mark in the West Coast Conference, capturing their 10th WCC title and fifth-straight trip to the NCAA Tournament. Head coach Cameron Rast returns seven starters from his 2007 WCC Championship squad including All-WCC honorees Jalil Anibaba, Stephen McCarthy, Kevin Klasila, Jide Ogunbiyi and Kellen Wantulok. The group combined for 7,586:51 minutes, 15 goals, 9 assists and 43 saves. McCarthy was acknowledged in August when he was named to the Missouri Athletic Club's Hermann Trophy watch list by the NSCAA.

The Broncos began the 2008 campaign ranked in all five major polls, but fell sharply after losing to Horizon League foes Loyola (2-1) and UIC (4-3) over the weekend. Santa Clara had the top spot in the nation in Top Drawer Soccer's preseason poll (falling to #13), while ranking third by Soccer Times (no new poll yet) and fifth by the NSCAA (#20) and College Soccer News (#14).

FAMILIARITY WITH BADGERS' TOURNAMENT
The UWM men's soccer team is quite familiar with UW's McClimon Soccer Complex and the school's soccer tournament. UWM will be making its 13th appearance in the Middleton Cycle & Fitness Wisconsin Invitational (formerly called the Big Toe Classic and the Rocky Rococo Classic) and sixth-straight. Milwaukee has posted a 12-8-4 all-time in the event, including tournament titles in 1993, 1995, 1996, 1999, and 2003. In its trip to the event last season, the Panthers dropped their opener, 2-1, to Western Michigan, and then fell in a 2-1 overtime heartbreaker against Tulsa. Live statistics for all tournament games are scheduled to be available on Wisconsin's website at www.uwbadgers.com/game_day/default.aspx?sportid=122.

THE DRAKE CLASSIC
The team opened the 2008 season with a loss and a tie at the Drake Classic last weekend in Des Moines, Iowa. The Panthers fell, 2-0, to host Drake in the opener on Saturday before battling Missouri State to a 1-1 tie Sunday. Freshman Evan Bartzis gave Milwaukee a 1-0 lead in the second half, but the Bears responded quickly and then neither team could come up with the winner. Senior goalkeeper Grant Fernstrum played well, making five saves in the draw and 12 on the weekend. Bartzis and sophomore Greg Rosenthal were both named to the all-tournament team.

SMOOTH TRANSITION
Freshmen Evan Bartzis and Eric Frazier both made a nice impression in their first two games, with the duo now first and second on the charts for shots taken and Bartzis the leading scorer.

HEALTHY MIX
The Panthers are looking forward to getting on the field in 2008, as they return six starters and 10 letterwinners from last year's squad. Add that to an impressive group of 16 newcomers and head coach Jon Coleman is looking forward to get the 2008 regular season started.

Nine of the newcomers made their first appearances this weekend, with Tony Maxey, Aaron Gibbons and Nick Dundon appearing in the starting line-ups both games and Evan Bartzis in the starting 11 once. Sophomore Sol Caceres and freshmen Eric Frazier, Stephen Romanello, Ross Van Osdol, Pedro Mejia and Aaron Gibbons also saw their first action in a UWM uniform.

OVERTIME JINX CONTINUES
In playing Missouri State to a 1-1 draw Aug. 31, UWM saw a streak get extended once again that they would like to put to rest: the team is now 0-7-12 in its past 19 overtime matches. It was 0-2-3 in 2007, 0-2-2 in 2006, 0-3-5 in 2005 and lost in extra time in the final match of the 2004 season (2-1 at UCSB in the NCAA Tournament). The Panthers last OT victory came Oct. 31, 2004, a 1-0 win over Cleveland State.

QUITE AN EXHIBITION
The Panthers got the 2008 season off on the right foot, marching through a two-game exhibition slate where they went back-to-back games without allowing a goal. The first came Aug. 18 with an impressive 1-0 victory over Bradley, a team that advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament after winning regular season and tournament titles in the Missouri Valley Conference a year ago and entered ranked No. 21 by the NSCAA's preseason poll. The Panthers then toppled UW-Whitewater, 3-0, Aug. 20 with an impressive overall performance, using all 20 players that were dressed and healthy for the game.

The four goals were scored by four different players, including two by newcomers. Sophomore Robert Refai led the way with eight shots in the two games, with junior Nicholas Gerard-Larson, sophomore Peter Sanger and freshman Nick Dundon recording four each. Dundon and senior Travis Phillips topped the team with three points (1G/1A).

In goal, seniors Grant Fernstrum and Ryan Germann split the time in half in each contest, with the defense playing so well in front of them that they were only called upon to make five total saves combined.

SENIORS READY TO BOOKEND CAREERS
Three seniors on the 2008 squad will look to go out on a high note, and a return trip to the NCAA Tournament is what they have in mind. After going to the second round of the tournament in their freshman season, Travis Phillips, Grant Fernstrum and Adam Skalecki look to improve on their NCAA ledger with a return trip this fall. The fourth senior on the squad, Ryan Germann, was a transfer to Milwaukee after his freshman season at American University.

200 SOUNDS GOOD
The Panthers love to play at Engelmann Field and their record over the years proves just that. Their all-time ledger at the field entering the 2008 campaign is 195-69-20, an impressive .722 winning percentage. With nine games on the home slate this fall, looks like UWM will be celebrating victory No. 200 on its storied home field at some point this season.

SHINING IN LEAGUE PLAY
After a slow start to the 2007 season, the Panthers righted the ship in time for the start of Horizon League play. In their eight conference games, the team gave up just five goals (posting four clean sheets) for a team goals against average of 0.61.

They held edges in every statistical category: goals (9-5), assists (8-5), shots (95-85), shots on goal (41-31) and corner kicks (48-38). Five different players accounted for the five game-winning goals en route to a second-place showing in the standings.

THE DRIVE FOR 400
The Panthers hit a significant milestone in their program history a year ago against Detroit Oct. 12: all-time victory No. 400. UWM had entered play in 2007 with an all-time mark of 397-222-53, a .635 winning percentage.

MILESTONE PROGRAM WINS:
1: Marquette, 4-1 (9/22/73)
50: Green Bay, 4-0 (10/7/78)
100: Northern Illinois, 4-3 (11/6/82)
150: Cleveland State, 2-1 (10/18/87)
200: Michigan State, 4-0 (10/13/91)
250: Cleveland State, 5-0 (10/15/95)
300: Loyola (MD), 2-0 (9/17/00)
350: Detroit, 3-0 (9/28/03)
400: Detroit, 1-0 (10/12/07)

HITTING THE BOOKS
UWM had three players honored for their work in the classroom by the league office last year. Steve Bode, Zeke Dombrowski and Ken Ogorzalek were all named to the Horizon Academic All-League Team in December. Dombrowski was also selected as the league Scholar Athlete of the Week in October.

After graduation, Ogorzalek went on to receive a prestigious Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation to pursue his graduate degree at the University of California-Berkeley in structural engineering. Nearly 40,000 students apply to the NSF fellowship program each year, less than 1,000 go on to earn the awards.

The Panther men were also once again named a recipient of the NCSAA/adidas Team Academic Award from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.

SO CLOSE YET SO FAR
If it feels like the Panthers have been in every match but haven't been able to catch a few necessary breaks the past few seasons, it could be considered a factual statement. After a 1-0 defeat in overtime against UIC in the semifinals of the Horizon League Tournament, the trend sounds familiar: 17 of the last 22 UWM losses dating back the past two-plus years have been by one goal.

Further analysis of the schedule a year ago shows just what kind of competition head coach Jon Coleman had on the schedule. Overall, the combined W-L-T record of all opponents for the season was 169-149-79, a .525 win percentage. For comparison, UIC, which won the league tournament and made a deep run into the NCAA postseason, ended the year with an opponent W-L-T record of just 216-210-83, a .505 win percentage.

Seven of UWM's 2007 opponents were ranked at one point during the season and the W-L-T record of the teams that handed the Panthers their 12 losses was 122-72-48 (.604).

In 2006, the Panthers overall record consisted of nine losses, with eight of them one-goal setbacks. Three of them came at the hands of Top 25 teams: 1-0 to No. 2 SMU Aug. 27, 2-1 to No. 6 Washington in overtime Sept. 10 and 1-0 to No. 12 UIC Oct. 3.

ONE-ZERO SOUND FAMILIAR?
UWM closed out the 2007 season by playing its ninth 1-0 game of the year against UIC in the league tournament. After starting 0-5 in such decisions, the Panthers did record victories in three of the final four, going 3-6 in those nine 1-0 affairs.

HOME COOKING
Despite a 2-3-2 mark at Engelmann in 2007, the Panthers still rank right up there with the best in the country when it comes to home-field advantage. In 2006, that was no different, as the Panthers posted back-to-back shutouts to open the home slate and finished 7-2-1. Since the start of the 2001 season, UWM has turned Engelmann Field into a place visiting teams do not want to see on their schedule. They have gone 52-8-3 on their home pitch in that time, including a 13-2 mark in postseason play and a perfect 2-0 mark in NCAA Tournament action.

BODE NAMED ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
Steve Bode wrapped up his illustrious career last season by being named the Pepsi/UWM Male Athlete of the Year. He also received the prestigious UWM Alumni Association Herman Kluge Award.

Bode was a three-time all-league selection, a team captain for three years and a starter for all four of his seasons in Milwaukee.

He started all 83 games he played in his career, missing just two of UWM's matches in that span due to injury. As a sophomore and a senior, he was named team most valuable player. He led the Panthers to the second round of the NCAA Tournament in each of his first two seasons on the field, winning one regular season Horizon League Championship and two Horizon League tournament titles in his career. He was also named to the league all-tournament team on two occasions and set career-highs with 11 points and five goals as a sophomore.

In the classroom, Bode earned all-region scholar-athlete honors three times from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America while posting a 3.676 cumulative grade-point average. He also collected third-team ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America recognition and was a three-year member of the Horizon League All-Academic Team. He also received the Horizon League Sportsmanship Award after the 2005 campaign.

After wrapping up his college career, Bode was drafted by the Chicago Fire of MLS and by the Milwaukee Wave.

PANTHERS IN THE PROS
In addition to Bode continuing his career in the world of professional soccer, former UWM player Tenzin Rampa was also drafted following his senior campaign by the Milwaukee Wave in the fifth round of the 2008 Major Indoor Soccer League College Draft.

PANTHERS IN THE POLLS
The Panthers were picked by league coaches to place fifth in the Horizon League regular season, according to the results of the preseason poll announced Aug. 18 by the league office. Milwaukee has advanced to the NCAA Tournament in five of the past seven seasons, reaching the second round in the last four it appeared (2002-05). It has compiled a league record of 39-7-4 in that time.

UIC, which advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament last season and is ranked as high as No. 16 in the national preseason polls, took the top spot for the second-straight year with 64 points and eight first place votes. Green Bay landed in second, compiling 52 points to edge out Loyola, which had 51. Butler (43) came in just ahead of UWM (39), with Valparaiso (26), Wright State (20), Detroit (16) and Cleveland State (13) rounding out the poll.

1. UIC (8 first place votes) - 64 pts.
2. Green Bay (1) - 52
3. Loyola - 51
4. Butler - 43
5. Milwaukee - 39
6. Valparaiso - 26
7. Wright State - 20
8. Detroit - 16
9. Cleveland State - 13

ON TAP
UWM will open the home season, hosting the 35th Annual Panther Invitational Sept. 12-14. The team takes on Binghamton Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Engelmann Field to start the home slate. Wisconsin and Cal State Northridge get things underway at 5 p.m.