Milwaukee Women Head To Detroit For Pair Of MatchesComplete Release in PDF Format
Oct. 7, 2003 MILWAUKEE - Detroit City Here We Come The state of Michigan and the city of Detroit loom on the horizon for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's soccer team. The Panthers, winners of five straight matches, will head to the Motor City area for a pair of tough games this weekend. UWM will begin the weekend with a Friday high noon showdown versus Horizon League rival Detroit, before heading to the suburbs to face regional power Oakland on Sunday. Milwaukee has had mixed results versus the two schools of late, having beating UDM five consecutive times while falling to Oakland in each of the last two seasons. Another Weekend, Another Sweep Thanks to a pair of victories this past weekend, the UWM women's soccer team has now swept games in each of the last three weeks. The Panthers got a second-half goal in beating 2003 NCAA Tournament qualifier Cincinnati on Friday before getting a pair of second-half goals to defeat league-member Loyola, 2-0, on Sunday. Finally .500 While a .500 overall record may not mean a lot to most NCAA caliber teams, reaching the break-even point on the season was big news for the MIlwaukee women's soccer team. The Panthers, who started the season 0-5-1 thanks to an enormously tough schedule, have won their last five games to move to .500 on the season at 5-5-1. UWM went from having the worst overall record in the league just three weeks ago to now having the second-best overall record among league schools. Panthers Go Streaking What started out as an important 1-0 victory over Butler on Sept. 24 has now become a winning streak of newsworthy proportions. With a victory over Cincinnati on Wednesday and subsequent blanking of Loyola on Sunday, the Milwaukee women's soccer team has now won five straight matches on the year. The winning streak is the longest streak in the Horizon League this season and the longest by a UWM team since the 2001squad won nine straight games. The five-game winning streak is currently the fourth longest in the 20-year history of the program. Powell Becoming Drama Queen Milwaukee midfielder Taylor Powell certainly has gained a knack for high drama goal-scoring in her short time at the collegiate level. The freshman scored the game-winning and only goal versus Cincinnati on Wednesday, marking her third goal of the year and second game-winner. The score, which came in the 68th minute, came on the heels of her game-tying goal versus Wright State with less than three minutes remaining on the clock. Oh, and Powell's first goal of the season, a drive off a Ginny Graczyk corner kick to beat Butler 1-0 in the Horizon League opener. Graczyk Earns Elite Status Who says freshmen have to pay their dues? UWM freshman defender Ginny Graczyk earned a program first last week when she was named to the soccerbuzz.com Division I National Elite Team of the Week on Thursday. No. 16 scored the first goal in Milwaukee's thrilling 3-2 overtime win over Marquette on Sept. 24 before notching an assist on all three Panther goals in a 3-2 double OT win over Wright State on Sept. 28. Graczyk, who leads the squad in assists with four while playing every minute of the season, was one of 11 athletes honored out of the 287 teams that sponsor DI soccer. Panthers Really Get Offensive Gone are the days of struggling to score goals. After failing to find the net in the first six games of the season, the UWM offense has turned it up a notch or two in the last month. During their current five-game winning streak, the Panthers have scored 10 goals, good for a 2.00 goals per game average. Taylor Powell leads the team with three tallies but only one other player, sophomore Elizabeth Chudy with two, has more than one goal. On the season, seven different players have found the net with eight different Panthers notching an assist. Rollin ... Rollin ... Rollin Fortunately for the UWM women's soccer team, things weren't quite as hectic on Sunday as they were a week before. One week after a dramatic 3-2 double OT win over Wright State, Milwaukee was able to increase its three-plus season long Horizon League winning streak with relative ease. After the shutout of Loyola, the Panthers have now played 20 consecutive league games without a loss. In fact, the only blemish on the win-loss record during that time, a 2-2 double OT tie last season versus the Ramblers a year ago. UWM Expected To Wear Crown Again In 2003 The Milwaukee women's soccer team will look to make it four in a row in 2003 as the three-time defending regular season champions were once again picked to win the Horizon League title. The Panthers were the unanimous choice to claim the league title in a vote of head coaches. Following is a breakdown of the preseason voting by the league coaches (first place votes in parentheses):
School 2002 Record Points
1 Milwaukee (6) 11-6-5 36
2 Butler (1) 15-6 30
3 Detroit 7-8-5 23
4 Loyola 7-9-3 22
5 Wright State 6-10-4 22
6 UW-Green Bay 4-11-2 19
7 Youngstown State 1-19 6
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