Erin Kane
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#18 Panthers Host Green Bay In League Quarterfinals
Milwaukee and Green Bay kick off Sunday at 1 p.m. at Engelmann Field
THIS WEEK IN PANTHER SOCCER
(7) Green Bay @ #18 (2) Milwaukee
Sunday, Nov. 2 • 1 p.m. • Engelmann Field
Gameday Media: Gametracker
Complete Release in PDF Format 
MILWAUKEE, Wis. (Oct. 28, 2008) - With a Horizon League regular season co-championship in tow, the No. 18 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's soccer team kicks off its run in the 2008 Horizon League Championship Sunday with a quarterfinal home match. The second-seeded Panthers host the seventh seed Green Bay at Engelmann Field, with kick off set for 1 p.m.
The "Silver" Anniversary
The Panthers are playing their 25th season as a varsity sport. The team will be celebrating the occasion all season long, recognizing outstanding achievements and moments in UWM women's soccer history. The squad will also be wearing special patches commemorating the season.
Getting Noticed
The Panthers are 18th in the NSCAA national poll for the second-straight week. They are also holding tight at 18 in the Soccer Buzz poll, while Soccer America gave UWM a three-spot bump to No. 19 this week (up from 22). In the region, Milwaukee dropped to third behind No. 1 in the nation Notre Dame and Penn State according to the NSCAA.
Fun With The RPI
The NCAA released its second RPI of the season on Oct. 21, with Milwaukee sitting 26th in the nation. The Panthers were No. 34 in the first RPI released Oct. 7. UWM has gained its standing thanks in part to eight non-league top-100 opponents, which they boast a 5-1-2 record against. In fact, of the team's 11 non-league opponents, just two are in the bottom half of the 318-team rating system and the average place of the 11 teams is 89.
A Look At The Opposition - Green Bay
The Phoenix jumped out of a Horizon League First Round match and into the No. 7 seed with a 2-1 win over Detroit in its regular season finale Sunday. Green Bay closed out the regular season unbeaten in its last three games. Chelsea Lyon has a team-high four goals and is tied with Claire Townsend (3g, 4a) for team-high scoring honors with 10 points. Maddie Drusch has played all 1430 minutes in goal for GB and has a 1.13 goals against average to go with four shutouts.
Series History
Sunday's match will mark the 26th meeting between Milwaukee and Green Bay, which will be the most prolific series in UWM's team history. The Panthers hold a commanding 18-6-1 all-time advantage in the series, including a 3-0 record in league tournament play. The last time these two teams met in the tournament was 1999.
League Breakdown
For the ninth-straight season, UWM claimed the league's regular season title. But, for the first time in that stretch, the Panthers shared the title and will not be the first seed. As the second seed, Milwaukee takes on No. 7 Green Bay in the quarterfinals. Loyola, which is the No. 1 seed, hosts the winner of Wednesday's first round game between No. 8 Valparaiso and No. 9 Youngstown State. The semifinals pits the winner of the UWM/GB game against the winner of No. 3 Wright State and No. 6 Cleveland State. Butler and Detroit tied for fourth in the league standings, with the Bulldogs clinching the No. 4 seed. The winner of that match will face the winner of Loyola's quarterfinal match.
Last Week In Review
Friday - Milwaukee 3, Detroit 0
Sophomore Sarah Talbert scored two goals just 2:08 apart early in the first half and the Panther defense allowed just two shots as Milwaukee defeated Detroit, 3-0, Friday evening at Engelmann Field. Freshman Sarah Hagen assisted on both goals and scored one of her own to break the school record for points in a season with 40.
Sunday - Milwaukee 3, Valparaiso 1
Sarah Hagen scored two goals to lead the Panthers to a 3-1 win over Valparaiso, Sunday afternoon at Engelmann Field. Junior Erin Kreuser added her first goal of the season as UWM won on Senior Day for the sixth-straight year.
Panther Of The Week
For the third-straight week, a Panther was the recipient of the league's player of the week award. Sarah Hagen was this week's honoree, as she was Oct. 13. Senior Sarah Teegarden was was the player of the week in the week in between Oct. 20. Hagen now has three weekly awards, while junior Kate Megna also has one honor (Sept. 22), giving Milwaukee five on the year.
Gonna Need More Than One Shelf
Sarah Hagen was named the Horizon League Player of the Week for second time in three weeks on Monday. She has now earned the honor three times this season. Hagen has also been named to three national teams of the week, including the Soccer Buzz National Elite Team of the Week Sept. 1 and Sept. 8. She pulled double-duty Sept. 8, also appearing on Soccer America's team.
Panthers In The League Tournament
Milwaukee has fared pretty well in the Horizon League Tournament over the years with an 18-7-6 record. That figure includes an 8-0-1 mark in the quarterfinals and a league-record nine appearances in the league title game (2-3-4). The Panthers have been in six penalty kick shootouts, going 3-3 in them. UWM will see some familiar foes if it plans to return to the championship game for the eighth time in 11 seasons. Milwaukee plays Green Bay in the quarterfinals, a team it is 3-0 in tourney play against, but hasn't seen since 1999. Possible semifinal opponents include Wright State, which the Panthers are 3-1-2 against, but have not played in the tournament since 2002. UWM and WSU did meet in the tournament each year from 1997-00. Wright State's quarterfinal opponent is Cleveland State, which Milwaukee has played in each of the last four tournaments and is 4-0 against. The Panthers have played no team in the tournament more that Butler, who they have played in 10 of their 14 all-time appearances. UWM is 7-1-2 in the series. The only way the two will meet is in the title game.
Winning Is Contagious
Believe it or not, but the Panthers' 15-2-2 start is their second-best record after 19 games in team history. The 2006 squad went 16-2-1 in that same stretch. But, this season, UWM is already tied for second in school history with its 15 wins and has the post-season to try and surpass the 2006 team. Milwaukee's .842 win percentage is also almost 70 points better than what the 2006 team finished at to establish a school record (.773). The Panthers are currently fourth in the nation in wins and tied for 14th in win percentage.
Miss Automatic
Sarah Hagen has scored a goal in each of her last six games, the second-longest goal-scoring streak in school history. Incidentally, the longest streak was seven games, by Hagen to start the season. For the season, she has scored goals in 15-of-19 games and tallied at least a point in 16. Five times this season she has scored two goals, another school record.
Record-Breaker
With 20 goals in a season, records are bound to get broken. Hagen topped the school record for freshman goals with her 13th goal Oct. 13. She broke the school single-season goal-scoring mark Oct. 17 against Butler with No. 18 and used a goal and two assists to push her point total to 40 break the points record (38) Oct. 24 against Detroit. Then, Sunday, she tied the league's freshman record for goals with her 20th. With the post-season to go, Hagen sits just one goal back of the league's single-season goal-scoring record.
Freshman Doing Big Things
Hagen leads the nation with her 20 goals and is tied for second with 44 points. In per-game averages, which the NCAA bases its rankings on, she is seventh in goals per game (1.05) and eighth in points per game (2.32). It goes without saying, but Hagen leads the league in both categories and is looking to become the first freshman to do that since Detroit's Cindy Fix in 1993.
Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner
Of Milwaukee's 15 wins this season, six have been decided by one of Sarah Hagen's goals. Her six game-winners are a school record, breaking the previous mark of five. Senior Sarah Teegarden was one of four Panthers that had tallied five in a season, doing so in 2006.
Helping Hands... Er... Feet
Junior Kate Megna leads the team with 10 assists, a figure that is second in the league and tied for third in school history. Meanwhile, junior Erin Kreuser is one back with nine assists this season. Both players entered the season with eight career assists and are now in the top five in school history in career helpers. Megna now has 18, which is fourth, and Kreuser has 17, which is fifth. Both players are key members of the offense, as Megna is second on the team with 18 points, which would have been the most by a Panther since 2002 if it were not for Sarah Hagen. Kreuser also tallied her first goal of the season Sunday after assisting her teammates on nine goals.
Everybody's Helping Out
Sophomore Nicole Sperl is a close third on the team with eight assists, which happens to be tied for fifth-most in a season in school history. Along with Kreuser and Megna, the team has already accumulated a school-record 55 assists this season. The record had been 50, set by the 1997 team. Also, this season marks the first time UWM has featured three players with at least seven assists.
Way To Rebound
When UWM lost to Loyola, 1-0, it marked the first time this season the Panthers had been shut out. In fact, the scoreless outing was their first since a 0-0 draw with Iowa Oct. 5. In that time, Milwaukee put together a school-record streak of 21-straight games without being shut out. The Panthers have rebounded with 24 goals in their last six games, an average of 4.0 per game. For the season, UWM has 51 goals, which is its first time with at least 40 goals since 1997, the third-most in school history and sixth in the nation. The team is averaging 2.68 goals per game, which is 11th nationally.
Doing It On Defense, Too
UWM's also rebounded from that loss to post five-straight shutouts before surrendering a goal Sunday. The five-game shutout streak was Milwaukee's first since it tied a school record with six-straight toward the end of the 2006 season. Over the last six games, all in league play, the Panthers have outshot their opponents by an average of 20.2-5.3 and allowed just the one goal. The long stretch gave the team some eye-popping league numbers this season. In eight games, UWM allowed just two goals and an average of 5.5 shots per game, while gaining five more corners per game, as well (6.6-1.5).
She Loves League Play
During the shutout streak, senior Erin Kane had a personal shutout streak of 508:18, the fourth-longest in school history. She owns the four longest streaks and is the only keeper in school history to carry a streak over 500 minutes. But, Kane's success against league teams comes as no surprise. This season, she went 6-1 with a 0.29 GAA. In her career, her numbers look something like this: 0.32 GAA, 25-1-2 record and 17 shutouts in 29 career league matches. She has also shared three shutouts in that time and not allowed more than one goal in a league contest.
Home, Sweet Home
The Panthers are 10-0 at home this season and are riding a 21-match home unbeaten streak (18-0-3). They also have a streak of 35-straight regular season home games without a loss (30-0-5) that remains intact for another season. And, if you include post-season contests, the team is still an impressive 33-1-6 at home over its last 40 home matches. Milwaukee is also unbeaten in their last 32 league home matches (31-0-1), dating back to Oct. 11, 1998.
Iron Women
As four-year starters, seniors Sarah Teegarden and Erin Kane are bound to play in their fair share of matches. In fact, Teegarden started her school-record 82nd career game Sunday. Kane, meanwhile, started career game No. 81. Both have started every game they played and are closing in on the school record of 85 career games played. As a goalkeeper, Kane's feat appears even more impressive. She long passed the school record for career minutes played, but she is creeping up on the league mark and needs just 153:18 to meet that mark.
League Run
The Panthers had their league-record 31-game league unbeaten streak (29-0-2) snapped Oct. 3 at Loyola. That streak became a league record during the 2006 season. The previous record also belonged to Milwaukee, a 21-game (20-0-1) stretch that immediately preceded the current streak. Since the turn of the century, the Panthers are 55-2-3 in league play.
Efficient Night
Milwaukee had its largest offensive outburst of the season Oct. 10, tallying seven goals and doing so on just 16 shots. Its 43.8 percent shooting for the game was the team's best since scoring on 2-of-3 shots (66.7%) in a 2-2 tie against Mississippi State Sept. 5, 2004. In fact, the Panthers scored on five of 11 shots taken in the first half, five of their first nine shots of the game and had a stretch of seven shots where all five first-half goals came.
...And Fast, Too
UWM scored four goals over a 5:28 span early in the second half, setting a school record for the fastest four goals scored in school history. The previous mark was 6:29 and came in the Panthers' 16-0 win over Western Illinois Sept. 5, 1997. Those four goals came in pairs, with one and two separated by just 41 seconds, the third-fastest back-to-back UWM goals in school history. Two and three were separated by 48 seconds, the fifth-fastest Panther goals.
First Place In The Big Ten
Milwaukee's win over Northwestern Sept. 24 pushed the Panthers' record against Big Ten opponents this season to 3-0 and extended their unbeaten streak against the conference to seven (5-0-2). Milwaukee is the only non-Big Ten team in the nation with three wins against the conference and is one of five to have played three games against Big Ten foes.
State Champs
UWM went undefeated against the other three Division I schools in Wisconsin for the second time in three seasons and pushed its unbeaten streak against state schools to nine games (8-0-1) with a win over Green Bay Sept. 26. The Panthers have not lost to one of the three other Division I schools in the state since 2005. They went 3-0 in 2006 and last season boasted a 2-0-1 record. UWM owns three-straight wins over UW and five-straight over Green Bay. And, finally, Milwaukee has defeated Marquette in 2006 and 2008, with the two teams tying in 2007.
M-V-P ... M-V-P ... M-V-P
Kate Megna was named the Offensive MVP at the Minnesota Gold Classic, the team's second tourney MVP this season. Sarah Hagen earned MVP honors at the Milwaukee Cup to start the season. Both players also earned all-tournament honors at each tournament, as has senior Sarah Teegarden. Freshman Keara Thompson rounded out the Milwaukee Cup representatives, while freshman Mary Wandolowski was also honored in Minnesota.
Soccer Captain
With three wins the week of Sept. 3-7, head coach Michael Moynihan became the winningest soccer coach in UWM history. He surpassed Louis Bennett with his 137th career win that Friday and picked up No. 138 on that Sunday. Bennett coached the men's team from 1996-05. He and Moynihan, who is now up to 147 career coaching wins, are two of the four coaches to eclipse 100 career soccer coaching wins in school history.
We Are The Champions
Earlier this season, the Panthers claimed their second-straight Milwauee Cup title. They defeated Ohio State 4-3 on Aug. 27 and Samford 4-2 on Aug. 29 to claim the title. For the third-straight year, co-hosts UWM and Marquette each went 2-0, but this is the second in a row the Panthers claimed the title on the goals scored tiebreaker.
A Few Extra Notes
Senior Erin Kane picked up shutout No. 40 Sept. 19 against Boston University. She is the only player in school and league history to crack the 30-shutout mark and reached 40 in just 71 games ... The Panthers tied Bradley's men's team for an NCAA record with a 24-game unbeaten streak in overtime matches (10-0-14). The streak reached 24 with a tie at New Mexico Sept. 12 and ended in OT two days later against UNLV ... After Ohio State knotted the game at 3-3 on Aug. 27, Nicole Sperl converted the go-ahead goal just 18 seconds later on a penalty kick. It was the third-fastest response goal in school history ... Sarah Hagen was the third Panther freshman to score two goals in her collegiate debut, following Louise Vraney in 2006 and Katie Waltenberger in 1997. This season also marked the third-straight season-opener in which a freshman scored, including Sarah Talbert's first career goal last season ... Vraney has scored on the opening day of each of her three seasons, including Aug. 22 against Wisconsin. No other player in team history has scored on an opening day more than once.
Megna's Memoirs Part Deux
Junior Kate Megna is once again providing her take on the Panthers' 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. Fans can also follow along with all of UWM's sports at the Verizon Wireless Panther Blogzone. The Blogzone is the perfect place to get a little extra information on your favorite Panther teams.
Next Up
Should the Panthers advance to the semifinals, they would face the winner of the No. 3 Wright State and No. 6 Cleveland State match up Nov. 7 at the site of the highest remaining seed.
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