Sarah Teegarden
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Panthers End Regular Season At #2 Texas A&M
Milwaukee gears up for Horizon League tourney with stiff final test
Milwaukee @ #2 Texas A&M
Game #18 • Oct. 26 • 7:30 p.m.
Gameday Media: Live Stats, Video
• Complete Release in PDF Format
MILWAUKEE, Wis. (Oct. 23, 2007) - After clinching its eighth-straight Horizon League regular season championship last weekend, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's soccer team will close out its regular season schedule with a trip to College Station, Texas, Friday to take on No. 2 Texas A&M. Kick off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
Scouting Texas A&M
Texas A&M enters the week with a 13-2-1 record and ranked second in the country. The Aggies have earned that ranking, losing only to then-No. 6 North Carolina and No. 16 Missouri. The tie was against No. 20 Penn State, while A&M has three wins against nationall-ranked teams, including a 2-0 win against No. 1 Texas two weeks ago. The Aggies are 11th in the nation in scoring, led by Ashlee Pistorius. She paces the squad with 17 goals and six assists for 40 points. She is third nationally in points per game and fourth in goals per game. Kristin Arnold has seen the majority of time in goal, playing all but 71 minutes, with a 0.77 goals against average and six shutouts.
Series History
Milwaukee has never played Texas A&M or any team from Texas, much less been to the Lone Star State. The Panthers have faced Big XII teams on seven occasions, going 2-5. Both of those wins have been over nationally-ranked teams in No. 8 Nebraska in 1998 and No. 16 Missouri last season. UWM is playing a top-25 team for the 28th time (2-22-4), including a top-five team for the ninth time. The Panthers played a top-five team twice last season--both one-goal losses to No. 1 teams.
Last Week
Milwaukee 2, Loyola 1 - Pam Shipway scored the decisive goal in the 71st minute to lead the Panthers to a 2-1 win over Loyola last Tuesday evening at Engelmann Field. With the win, Milwaukee pushed its first-place lead to four points over the Ramblers.
Milwaukee 6, Cleveland State - Six different players scored goals, including five in the second half, to lead UWM to a 6-0 win over Cleveland State Friday evening at Engelmann Field. The Panthers outshot their guests, 42-4, in rolling to the easy win.
Milwaukee 2, Wright State 0 - Milwaukee clinched its eighth-straight Horizon League regular season championship with a 2-0 win over Wright State Sunday afternoon at Engelmann Field. Kate Megna and Sarah Teegarden provided the offense and the Panthers allowed the highest-scoring team in the league to just five shots on the day.
Notes From The Week That Was
• Sunday's shutout was the 10th of the season for UWM. It is the fifth time the Panthers have reached 10 shutouts in a season, including in each of the last three seasons.
• Milwaukee also tallied multiple goals in its fifth-straight match, the team's longest streak of multi-goal games since a nine-game run in 2001.
• Pam Shipway became the seventh player to play in 80 games in her career when she took the field Sunday.
• Against Cleveland State last Friday, Claire Pignet tallied her first career goal and Andrea Wisniewski picked up her first career point with an assist.
Horizon League Champions
With the Panthers' 2-0 win over Wright State, they clinched their eighth-straight Horizon League regular season championship and the ninth in team history. They did so with an unbeaten record (7-0-1) for the seventh time in the last eight seasons and the ninth time overall.
Horizon League Tournament
Milwaukee clinched the top seed in the upcoming league tournament and, with it, hosting rights for the tourney. The Panthers will host a quarterfinal game Nov. 3 against the winner of the 8th seed vs. 9th seed first round match-up. If UWM advances to the semifinals, it would host the semis Nov. 9 and the league title game Nov. 11. Game times will be announced when the field is set, while one weekend of action remains. No other team has clinched a seed.
These Go To Eleven (One Louder)
As has become tradition in Milwaukee, the Panthers have gone on an extended unbeaten streak towards the end of the regular season. UWM has not lost a match since Sept. 16, posting an 8-0-3 record since. At 11 games, the streak is the third-longest in school history, trailing only a pair of 13-game unbeaten streaks from the 2005 and 2006 seasons that share the school record. As you may have guessed, this is the third-straight season Milwaukee has gone unbeaten for at least 11-straight games.
Whole Lotta Goals
While at times this season goals have been at a premium, UWM had little trouble scoring last Friday. The team busted out for a season-high six goals against Cleveland State. It was the most goals Milwaukee had scored in a game since Nov. 3, 2005, when it beat the Vikings 8-0 in the league tournament. That game was also the last time six different Panthers scored goals, as was the case Friday. UWM also took 42 shots, its most since Nov. 2, 1997.
Surprise, Kane Has Another Record
Erin Kane has been quite thorough in her attempt to break every school record the program has. In fact, she recorded her 36th career win Sunday to tie the school record for career wins. Plus, in the second minute, she surpassed the record for career minutes by a goalkeeper. As just a junior, Kane already holds career records for minutes (5442:41), GAA (0.496), shutouts (35), save percentage (.844) and its tied for wins. Also, her GAA sits sixth in NCAA Division I history, while she will not officially join the all-time list until she graduates. The only record that would be a reach for her is saves, where she sits fifth with 162. With an average of just 2.8 saves per game in her career, it is unlikely that she would play the 47 games required to break that mark.
Everybody's Player Of The Week
Senior Pam Shipway earned a pair of honors this week after her performance last week. Shipway scored the game-winners against both Loyola and Cleveland State and added an assists vs. Wright State. Monday she was named the Horizon League Player of the Week. A day later, she was named to the Soccer America National Team of the Week. Shipway is the second Panther this season to earn a weekly league and national honor. Erin Kane earned her school-record sixth career Player of the Week award Sept. 24 and was named to Soccer Buzz's weekly national team. Kane was the fifth Panther ever selected to Soccer Buzz's team, while Shipway is just the third to earn a spot on Soccer America's.
League Run
By finishing the league season a near-perfect 6-0-1, UWM pushed its league-record 30 unbeaten streak in league games to 30 (28-0-2). The streak 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 48-1-3 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 6-0-1 so far this month, Milwaukee has pushed its record in the month of October to 47-8-6 (.869) since 2000. Most impressive is that the mark includes a streak of 24-straight October matches without a loss (22-0-2) 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 110-51-15 (.668) all-time at Engelmann. Over the last two-plus years, the team is 19-1-5 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 28 regular season league home matches (27-0-1).
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.
Leading The League
Since 2000, UWM has been untouchable in league play, posting a 48-1-3 league mark in that time and won its eighth-straight league title this season. The streak is currently the second-longest in the country, trailing only Penn State's streak of nine-straight Big Ten crowns.
National Notoriety
Milwaukee has a great opportunity to make a name for itself nationally this season, as it is poised to take on its third nationally-ranked foe this season at Texas A&M Friday. The Aggies have been in the top 10 all season and moved up to No. 2 this week. Meanwhile, Boston College, which was eighth when the Panthers visited Sept. 14 has hovered in the top 10, but is 14th for the second-straight week. Crosstown rival Marquette, which was 24th when it tied Milwaukee, has been ranked as high as No. 19. 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 fourth in the country in GAA (0.393) and tied for 18th in save percentage (.879). Individually, Erin Kane is fourth in GAA (0.398) and tied for 16th in save percentage (.875).
Big Time Results
Erin Kane has been relatively unfazed by the difficult schedule head coach Michael Moynihan has put together. Just a junior, she is gearing up to face the ninth nationally-ranked opponent 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.
Keeping It To A Minimum
Last Tuesday against Loyola, the Panthers yielded just their seventh goal of the season, spread out over seven matches. In fact, Milwaukee has not allowed multiple goals in one game since Oct. 4, 2006, against Green Bay, a span of 27 matches. The fewest multi-goal games UWM has allowed in a season is three, done in 2001, 2005 and 2006.
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.
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. The Panthers placed four players on the Milwaukee Cup All-Tournament, led by sophomore Erin Kreuser, who was named 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
• When the Panthers shut out Valparaiso Oct. 12, it was the 150th shutout in school history.
• 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 open their run in the 2007 Horizon League Tournament Saturday, Oct. 3, in the quarterfinals. Milwaukee will play the winner of a first round game pitting the eighth and ninth seeds Oct. 30.
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