Panthers Look To Capture League TitleComplete Release in PDF Format
Oct. 20, 2003 MILWAUKEE - Panthers Trip, But Do Not Fall While the winning streak may be over, the unbeaten streak isn't. Despite playing to a 2-2 draw with the University of Illinois-Chicago on Wednesday, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men's soccer team still sits alone in first place in the Horizon League and still owns a 21-match league unbeaten streak. League Title On The Horizon Controlling your own destiny. The line is used a lot in sports but it certainly holds true for the UWM men's soccer team. The Panthers, who boast a 4-0-1 record in the Horizon League, can win the 2003 league title outright with victories over UW-Green Bay and Loyola this week. While both contests are on the road, the two teams on the schedule sit last and next to last in the current league standings. If Milwaukee can win both matches this weekend, it will mark the third consecutive season in which the Panthers have won the title. If UWM falters in one of the contests, it can still win the league title as the next two teams, Detroit and Butler, already have dropped games to the Panthers this season. Cliff Ellsworth, A.K.A, The Microwave No, he doesn't wear No. 15 but Cliff Ellsworth certainly has played the old Vinnie Johnson "Microwave" role for the UWM men's soccer team. In recent weeks, the junior from Mequon has provided instant offense to go with his track-like speed off the bench. With an assist versus UIC on Wednesday, Ellsworth is now tied for second on the team in assists with three while sitting fifth on the squad in points (7). Ellsworth has been particularly dangerous with fellow reserve forward Steve Sperl, as he has assisted on both of Sperl's goals this season. From Two To Zero For the first time in over six seasons, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men's soccer team will be Dombrowski-less on Wednesday. The latest two Dombrowski's to boast a Panther uniform, senior Tighe and sophomore Neil, will both be forced to sit out the game at UW-Green Bay thanks to yellow card accumulations. Unfortunately for UWM, both Tighe and Neil received their fifth yellow cards on the season versus UIC, and, as a result, must sit out Wednesday's contest. The suspension will be the first for Tighe but the second in Neil's two-year career. It's That Time Of Year Again On the day the "official" Bowl Championship standings came out in college football, its time to look at soccer's version of the "power rankings", located at www.soccerratings.com. The ratings, which take into consideration won-loss record, strength of schedule, and opponent's won-loss record, currently are used when making at-large selections for the NCAA Tournament. UWM is currently 26th in the latest ratings which came out on Oct. 13. Two of UWM's opponents Akron and Dayton, cracked the top 40 as they sit at 30th and 34th, respectively. Panthers Hang Around The Corner While the final scoreboard may have indicated a tie in last Thursday's game versus UIC, the ending stat sheet told a different story. In the 2-2 draw with the Flames, Milwaukee outshot the visitors 22-9 while taking a remarkable 19 corner kicks to UIC's zero. The 19 corner kicks are easily a season high for the Panthers and are the most corner's since the 19 taken in a 1-0, double overtime win over Detroit on Sept. 29, 2000. Leading In All Fronts While it may not be exactly foolproof, here's a good way to win your men's soccer regular season title....lead all league members in both offense and defense. Currently the 2003 Milwaukee squad is doing just that as the 31 goals are the most scored by any Horizon League team this season while the 16 goals against are the fewest allowed thus far. On an individual front, goalkeeper Kirk Thode continues to pace the league with a 0.93 goals against average while Bobby Lish is tied for fifth with 0.47 goals per game. The Countdown Is Over The Countdown is now officially over for Louis Bennett. With a 2-1 victory over Akron on Oct. 5 , the eighth-year head man reached the 100-win plateau for both his UWM and overall career. Bennett is currently the second-winningest coach in school-history, trailing Don Harris (109) by seven overall victories. A little more than halfway through his eighth-year on MIlwaukee's east side, Bennett has averaged a little over 12.5 wins per season. Not only are the 12.5 wins per season the best per year totals by a UWM coach, but Bennett's .650 career winning percentage is also tops in Milwaukee men's soccer coaching annals. Panthers Expected To Top The Horizon Following back-to-back Horizon League regular season championships, it should come as no surprise that the UWM men's soccer team was picked to win the 2003 title in unanimous fashion. The Panthers received all of the possible first-place votes for 49 total points. UIC was picked for second with 36 points while Butler was slotted for third with 35 points. The 2003 preseason Horizon League poll is as follows (first place votes in parentheses).
School 2002 Record Points
1 Milwaukee (7) 19-2-1 49
2 UIC 10-8-2 36
3 Butler 9-10-3 35
4 Wright State 8-10-1 30
5 Cleveland State (1) 10-11-0 29
6 Detroit 11-6-3 24
7 Loyola 3-16-0 13
8 UW-Green Bay 3-14-0 8
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