Nov. 9, 2009

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men's soccer team will start the postseason Tuesday, facing Valparaiso University in the first round of the Horizon League Tournament. The Panthers finished 2-4-2 in the Horizon League, accumulating eight points in the league standings. The Crusaders ended with 14 points after going 4-2-2 in league play by virtue of their 2-1 victory over Cleveland State Saturday, earning them the third seed. The match will kick off at noon at Brown Field on Tuesday.

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The contest with the Crusaders will be just the fifth confrontation between the two schools, with the series tied at 1-1-2 following Valpo's 1-0 win earlier this season.

The sports staff at Valparaiso's campus radio station, WVUR 95.1 FM, will be carrying Tuesday's game against Milwaukee live over its airwaves and online at www.valpoathletics.com. Live statistics for Tuesday's matchup will also be available through the official Crusader and UWM websites.

If Milwaukee advances, it would travel to Indianapolis this weekend, where Butler will be hosting the semifinals and championship game of the Horizon League Tournament. As the lowest remaining seed out of the quarterfinals, Milwaukee would face the top-seeded Bulldogs in the second semifinal at 1:30 p.m. CST on Friday, with the championship game to be played at noon CST Sunday.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENT:
VALPARAISO: The Valparaiso men's soccer team will host a postseason game for the first time since 1998 when the third-seeded Crusaders welcome sixth-seeded Milwaukee to Brown Field on Tuesday in Horizon League Championship quarterfinal action.

This year's Crusader squad has already put together maybe the finest overall season in program history. With Saturday's win, Valpo matched the program record for wins in a single season with nine and also secured just the second season above .500 in its history, matching the 1987 team in both respects. This year's team is right up there with the 1987 squad as well for the stingiest defense in school history, as the `87 team gave up 16 goals in 16 games while this year's Crusaders have surrendered just 18 goals in 17 contests.

Valpo is 4-0-1 over its last five games, matching the longest unbeaten streak in program history. The Crusaders have not lost since Oct. 11, with their only draw during that time frame coming at UIC Oct. 31.

Steve Shively leads the offense with 14 points and four assists and is also tied for the team lead in goals with five. Zack Stivers also has five goals this season. In the nets, Ryan Schwarz has played all 1587:44 of the season, posting a .786 save percentage, 1.02 GAA and six shutouts. The six clean sheets ties the school's single-season record.

FINAL STANDINGS
The final day of the regular season was spent scoreboard watching, as the Panthers had the bye while the other eight Horizon League teams battled things out. Wright State took a 1-0 halftime lead, but Butler came through with three second-half goals to get the 3-1 win and punch UWM's ticket to the postseason. In the other games, Valparaiso edged Cleveland State to get the third seed, Green Bay got past Loyola to hold on to second, and Detroit upset UIC to make the Flames the fifth seed.

Butler won the regular season title with that 3-1 win and will host the semifinals and championship match. Green Bay is the No. 2 seed and, along with the Bulldogs, will have a bye into the semifinals. UIC is the fifth seed and will face No. 4 Cleveland State in the other quarterfinal.

FIRST TIME AROUND
These two teams met just over two weeks ago on Oct. 24, when Valparaiso escaped with a 1-0 win over UWM at Engelmann Field on a late own goal. Freshman goalkeeper John Shakon made four saves in the game. His counterpart, Valpo's Ryan Schwarz, made six saves - including several on quality chances for the UWM offense. The game's lone goal came at the 75:54 mark, when Clayton Lyons crossed one from the right end line into the front of the goal box. A UWM defender attempted to clear the ball, only to have it go directly into the goal at the near post.

THE WEEK THAT WAS
The Panthers dropped their regular season finale when Pablo Delgado scored in the 89th minute to send the University of Wisconsin home a 1-0 winner. Freshman goalkeeper John Shakon played brilliantly in goal, making six saves - including several high-quality stops - but in the end it was Delgado's strike that ended it late in regulation.

AGENT Cody Banks HAS IT ALL COVERED
Freshman Cody Banks had his hand in both scores for UWM against Loyola Oct. 10, assisting the first and netting the second. The last multi-goal game for Milwaukee (as a team) where one player had a hand in every goal was almost four seasons ago, when Neil Dombrowski scored all four goals in a 4-1 victory over Loyola.

OFFENSE COMING TOGETHER
The Panthers ended up scoring just one goal, but were a threat offensively all weekend long against Cleveland State and Detroit Oct. 2 and 4. They took 47 shots in the two games (24 against CSU and 23 against UDM), forcing opposing keepers to make 18 saves. That two-game shot total marks the most for UWM since recording 55 in games against IPFW (27 shots) and Lipscomb (28 shots) at the Panther Invitational in early September of the 2006 season.

FREE SOCCER
Milwaukee has been playing some tight games of late, leading to overtime against Wright State Sept. 27, Cleveland State Oct. 2 and Detroit Oct. 4. That marked just the third time in program history that the team played three-straight OT matches. The last time it happened was in 1999, when games against Eastern Michigan, Marquette and Marshall went past regulation. The only other time it occurred was in 1992. UWM has never played in four-consecutive overtime matches in program history.

NEW ROLE = RESULTS
Junior Greg Rosenthal is taking a bigger role in offense this season and the results are already noticeable. Coming into the season, the team captain has taken 20 shots in 37 career games (an average of just over 0.5 a game) and scored one goal. In 2009, he is currently tied for first on the team with six points on two goals and two assists and has recorded 29 shots through 17 matches.

QUICK HITTER
When sophomore Ross Van Osdol opened the game against Cal State Northridge Sept. 13 with an early goal, it marked one of the fastest to start a game in recent seasons. The only two that have been scored earlier than his 92-second tally in the past six years are Travis Phillips' goal against Yale in 2007 (just 55 seconds in) and Dale Weiler's strike against Cleveland State in 2004 (90 seconds).

THE YOUNG GUNS
Eric Frazier, Evan Bartzis and Ross Van Osdol made nice impressions in their first season, accounting for 11 of UWM's 17 goals on the year. If you look at the stats, five of Milwaukee's top six point producers in 2008 were freshmen or sophomores. Frazier had a team-high 16 points (6G/4A) while Bartzis was tied for second with six points (3G) with senior Adam Skalecki (2G/2A). Van Osdol (2G/1A) and then-sophomores Peter Sanger (2G/1A) and Robert Refai (1G/3A) tied for fourth with five points each.

SENIOR LEADERSHIP
For the first time in recent memory, a large class of seniors will not be on the field for Milwaukee this fall. Just two seniors dot the roster in 2009, with Nicholas Gerard-Larson and Nkuti Ndely looking to close out their careers on a high note. UWM will definitely be a young squad this season. In addition to the two seniors, the roster features just five juniors. In total, 22 of the 29 student-athletes on the roster are sophomores (13) or freshman (9).

LEANING ON EXPERIENCE
This year's sophomore class definitely took advantage of the opportunity a year ago. One of the benefits that last season brought was the great amount of experience that the underclassmen were able to take in. Freshman accounted for 80 starts in the field last year, including three players that had 15 or more starts on the campaign. Overall, UWM returns 12 players that had six or more starts in 2008, including six that had 10 or more: sophomore Tony Maxey (18 starts), junior Greg Rosenthal (17), senior Nicholas Gerard-Larson (17), sophomore Eric Frazier (16), junior Peter Sanger (16) and sophomore Aaron Gibbons (10).

MORE WITH COACH COLEMAN
This season there will be a new weekly feature with UWM's head coach. Look for a weekly audio podcast of the "Jon Coleman Show", as we sit down weekly with Jon to revisit the week that was and talk about the upcoming schedule. The first episode was available Aug. 31 and will be followed with a new episode every Monday during the course of the 2009 campaign. The show is available as a link off the main UWM website page or directly at www.uwmpanthers.cstv.com/genrel/podcasts.

TIME WARNER TELEVISION SCHEDULE FOR 2009
The Panthers will have three of their games televised this fall on Time Warner Sports 32, beginning with the season opener against Marquette to be aired live. In addition to that contest, the Milwaukee games at Green Bay Oct. 30 and home against Wisconsin Nov. 5 will also be aired on TWC Sports 32. Matt Menzl and Sean Reti are scheduled to do all games. Replay dates and times of future games will be announced at a later date.

ON TAP
If Milwaukee advances, it would travel to Indianapolis this weekend, where Butler will be hosting the semifinals and championship game of the Horizon League Tournament. As the lowest remaining seed out of the quarterfinals, Milwaukee would face the top-seeded Bulldogs in the second semifinal at 1:30 p.m. CST on Friday, with the championship game to be played at noon CST Sunday.