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UWM Closes Out League Play With Homestand

Panthers host final three league opponents this week

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MILWAUKEE, Wis. (Oct. 16, 2007) - The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's soccer team will close out its Horizon League schedule with a three-game homestand this week, beginning with Loyola Tuesday. The Panthers will then host Cleveland State Friday and Wright State Sunday. UWM is first in the league and in search of an eighth-straight regular season title.

Scouting Loyola
The Ramblers are one point back of the Panthers in the standings, sitting at 4-0 in league play and 9-6 on the year. Loyola had a six-match winning streak snapped with a 3-0 loss at Wisconsin, but rebounded for a 1-0 win over Butler Sunday. Cynthia Morote-Ariza leads the team and league in scoring with nine goals, six assists and 24 points. On the other end of the field, Colleen Dougherty is approaching 1,000 minutes in goal and has a 1.13 goals against average, 7-2 record and four shutouts.

Scouting Cleveland State
Cleveland State is riding high into this week after having picked up its first program league win over the weekend. After defeating Youngstown State last Friday, the Vikings are now 1-3 in league play and 4-10 on the year. Jennifer Wieand and Shayna Back have each topped the 10-point mark, with Wieand tallying a team-high seven goals and 16 points. Back has picked up five goals of her own to go with three assists. Kelly Zinkiewich has played the bulk of minutes in goal and has tallied two shutouts, while posting a 2.41 GAA.

Series Histories
Milwaukee has had success against all three opponents this week, holding a 32-6-7 combined series advantage against the trio of teams. The Panthers are unbeaten in their last 13 contests with Loyola (11-0-2) and lead the series 13-1-2. UWM is the team CSU has played more than any other in its three-plus year history, with the Panthers winning all six meetings. Meanwhile, Milwaukee is 6-0-1 against Wright State since 2000 and lead the all-time count, 13-5-5.

Lights, Camera, Action
Both Friday's match with Cleveland State and Sunday's match with Wright State will be televised on Time Warner Sports Channel 32 on tape delay. Check your local listings for showtimes.

Last Week
Milwaukee 2, Valparaiso 0 - Freshman Nicole Sperl scored her fourth game-winning goal of the season to lead Milwaukee to a 2-0 win over Valparaiso Friday afternoon. Senior Joanna Severson added an insurance goal in the second half, as the Panthers are now unbeaten in their last eight games (5-0-3).

Notes From The Week That Was
• UWM remained a perfect 8-0 against Valpo, the most wins against any opponent it has never lost to.
• Erin Kane continues to creep up on a pair of school records, pushing her career minutes played to 5195:47 and her career win total to 33. Kerri St. Aubin holds both records with 5353:55 and 36 wins.
• The shutout Friday was the 150th shutout in program history, and 34th of Kane's career.
• Joanna Severson's goal came on her second penalty kick of the season. She is now a perfect 5-for-5 on PKs in her career, by far a school record.

Horizon League Title Chase
This week is crucial in Milwaukee's bid for an eighth-straight regular season league championship. The Panthers sit first with a 4-0-1 mark and 13 points and face the second (Loyola, 4-0/12 pts) and third-place (Wright State, 3-0-1/10) teams this week. UWM controls its own destiny and clinches the title outright with three wins this week. Only Youngstown State and Green Bay have been mathematically eliminated from the top spot in the league, while UWM, Loyola and WSU are the only teams with less than two losses. Any Milwaukee win, or a win and tie by Loyola, eliminates the bottom six teams from title competition and the top seed in the league tournament.

All She Does Is Score Game-Winners
Freshman Nicole Sperl paces the Panther attack with four goals. But what makes it more impressive is that all four scores have decided matches in Milwaukee's favor. Her four game-winners are tied for fifth-most in a season in school history, one back of the league record achieved four times. Most recently, junior Sarah Teegarden scored five winners last season, all five goals she scored on the year. At this pace, Sperl would join Teegarden as the only players in school history to score more than two goals in a season and have all of them be game-winners.

League Run
With another league win last week, UWM has now gone 27 league games (25-0-2) without a loss, a streak that surpassed the league record late last season. That record also belonged to Milwaukee, a 21-game (20-0-1) stretch that immediately preceded the current streak. Since 2000, the Panthers are 45-1-3 in league play.

Octoberfest
The Panthers are getting the most out of the month of October and have been doing so for some time. After going 3-0-1 so far this month, UWM has pushed its record in the month of October to 44-8-6 (.810) since 2000. Most impressive is that the mark includes a streak of 21-straight October matches without a loss (19-0-2) the team takes into action this week. Milwaukee has not lost a game in the 10th month of the year since a 2-0 loss to Wisconsin Oct. 21, 2004.

Home, Sweet Home
Engelmann Field is a tough place to play if you're not the Panthers. Milwaukee is 107-51-15 (.662) all-time at Engelmann. Over the last two-plus years, the team is 16-1-5 at home, including a 7-1 mark last season. UWM had a 17-game home unbeaten streak (14-0-3) snapped in the league semifinals last season, but is unbeaten in its last 25 regular season league home matches (24-0-1).

Bring On Extra Time
Milwaukee's three ties in its last six games have extended an impressive streak of 21-straight overtime games without a loss. UWM is 9-0-12 in that time and has not yielded an overtime goal since Sept. 12, 2004, to DePaul.

Overtime Trooper
If playing extra time bothers junior goalkeeper Erin Kane, she surely isn't showing it. She has been in goal for 17 games that have gone into overtime and is yet to give up a golden goal. Her 16 shutouts that have stretched into overtime represent almost half of her school and league-record 33 career shutouts. Currently, she has played 264:56 of overtime without allowing a goal.

All Roads Go Through Kreuser
Erin Kreuser scored the team's first goal Sept. 28 at Butler and then assisted on the second, extending a notable personal streak. She scored or assisted on six-straight Panther goals to that point, falling just one short of the school record. That streak ended with Joanna Severson's PK. Cammy Polson holds the school record, having been involved in seven-straight goals twice in her career. Kresuer's streak started with a pair of assists vs. Washington Sept. 2 and included two goals (one game-winner) and four assists (three game-winners).

With a Little Help from My Friends
Erin Kreuser picked up her league-leading sixth assist of the season on UWM's first goal at Green Bay Oct. 3. The assist was her fourth game-winning assist this season and the fifth of her career. Kreuser's season total is one back of Mara Thompson's school record of five set in 1995. She is also two back of the school career record of seven, held by seven players. Another sophomore, Kate Megna, also has five in her career with three as a freshman and two more this season.

Panthers Pace Preseason Poll
For the eighth-straight year, Milwaukee topped the Horizon League preseason coaches' poll. The Panthers received all seven possible first-place votes and finished with 56 points. They have won the last seven league regular season championships, each time the team topped the preseason poll.

Leading The League
Since 2000, UWM has been untouchable in league play, posting a 45-1-3 league mark in that time and winning the last seven league titles. The streak is currently the second-longest in the country, trailing only Penn State's streak of nine-straight Big Ten crowns.

National Notoriety
UWM has a great opportunity to make a name for itself nationally this season, as it is poised to take on three ranked teams in the regular season. Texas A&M (Oct. 26) has been in the top 10 all season and moved up to third this week. Meanwhile, Boston College, which was eighth when the Panthers visited Sept. 14 has hovered in the top 10, but is 14th. Crosstown rival Marquette, which was 24th when it tied Milwaukee, has been ranked as high as No. 19, but fell out of the top-25 last week. UWM faced three nationally-ranked foes last season, defeating No. 16 Missouri and playing a pair of No. 1 squads (Portland and Notre Dame) tough. The win over Mizzou was the second over a ranked foe in team history.

A Little National Notoriety For UWM
The Panthers finished last season very prominently seated in the national statistical rankings. This season, UWM got off to a slow start, but is now making its way back into the national spotlight. Milwaukee is now fifth in the country in GAA (0.405) and tied for 17th in save percentage (.875). Individually, Erin Kane is sixth in GAA and 21st in save percentage (.872).

Big Time Results
Erin Kane has been relatively unfazed by the difficult schedule head coach Michael Moynihan has put together. Just a junior, she has already faced eight nationally-ranked opponents in her career. And, while her win-loss record may not be impressive (1-5-2), the rest of her stat line is. In those eight games, she has posted a 0.95 goals against average and three shutouts. In fact, she has conceded more than one goal just twice. And, against teams from the six "BCS" conferences she is 6-7-7 with a 0.60 GAA and 12 shutouts.

State Champs
Milwaukee topped Green Bay, 4-0, Oct. 3 to complete the Wisconsin circuit with an unbeaten 2-0-1 record. What that means is UWM went unbeaten against the state's Division I schools for the second straight season after a perfect 3-0 record last season. The Panthers previously beat Wisconsin (1-0) and tied Marquette (0-0). In years where all four schools have played each other, UWM's sweep last season was just the fifth ever. Both Wisconsin (2003 and 2004) and Marquette (2000 and 2001) have done it twice.

Player Of The Week
Erin Kane was named the Horizon League Player of the Week Sept. 24, marking the sixth time in her career she has won the award. She earned the award after making 11 saves and shutting out both Wisconsin and No. 24 Marquette. The six awards, which includes three as a freshman and two as a sophomore, are twice as many as any other player in school history. Cammy Polson and Elizabeth Chudy are second, having earned weekly league honors three times in their careers. Kane was also named to the Soccer Buzz National Elite Team of the Week for the first time in her career. She is the fifth Panther to be named to the team.

Cup Champs
For the second-straight season, UWM posted a perfect 2-0 record at the Milwaukee Cup to tie with its co-host Marquette. After taking second last season on a goal differential tiebreaker, the Panthers benefited from a goals scored tiebreaker for their first cup title in the eight years of the tournament. Milwaukee, which has won four-straight in the tourney and is unbeaten in its last five, won an in-season tournament for the first time since the Central Michigan Invitational in 2000. Last season, UWM took second place at all three in-season tournaments.

All-Tournament
As champs, the Panthers placed four players on the Milwaukee Cup All-Tournament. Sophomore Erin Kreuser headed the list of honorees as the Offensive MVP. She was joined by senior Amanda Winn, junior Sarah Teegarden and freshman Heather Roadhouse.

2006 Revisited
The Panthers are coming off the most successful season in school history. They posted a 16-4-2 record, won a seventh-straight league title and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the second-straight season. UWM set school records for wins, winning percentage (.773), goals against average (0.44) and shutouts (16). It's shutout percentage of .727 was third in the nation, GAA was fourth and winning percentage 12th.

More Notes
• UWM beat Green Bay for the 17th time in the series history Oct. 3, the most wins Milwaukee has against any team.
• The Panthers' Sept. 23 match with Marquette drew a school-record crowd of 867. The previous best was 625 set Sept. 2, 2001, vs. Oakland.
• Erin Kreuser's game-winning goal at Wisconsin Sept. 21 was the 800th goal in team history.
• Freshman Sarah Talbert tallied a goal in the season-opener vs. Indiana State to become the second freshman in school history to score in a season-opener.
• Sophomore Louise Vraney, the first to do so, scored as well and is now the school's all-time leading goal-scorer on opening day with three.

Megna's Memoirs
Sophomore Kate Megna is providing her take on the 2007 season as it goes on, via an online blog at uwmpanthers.com. At the start of every week, Megna looks back on the weekend of action and shares the inside story of the Milwaukee women's soccer team. Visit uwmpanthers.com for the latest installment, which is posted on Monday afternoons.

Next Up
The Panthers close out their regular season at No. 3 Texas A&M Oct. 26. The Aggies will be the final tune up the Horizon League Tournament, Oct. 30-Nov. 11.