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UWM Plays Butler For Spot In League Title Game

Panthers in search of ninth league championship appearance

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MILWAUKEE, Wis. (Nov. 6, 2007) - The top-seeded University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's soccer team heads into action this weekend in search of a fifth Horizon League Tournament title when it hosts the semifinals and championship game this weekend. UWM first takes on fouth-seeded Butler Friday, Nov. 9. With a win, Milwaukee will advance to Sunday's championship game against the winner of Loyola vs. Wright State. Loyola and Wright State kick of in Friday's first game at 4 p.m. at Engelmann Field.

Scouting Butler
It's been a while since the Panthers and Bulldogs faced each other. Since the 5-1 UWM win Sept. 28, Butler has turned its season around, posting an 8-2 record and enter the semifinals on a five-game winning streak. Angie Muir remains the major catalyst on offense, leading the team with 10 goals, six assists and 26 points. Two more players have at least 10 points. In goal, Annalise Larking has played just over 1655 minutes and has a 0.98 goals against average to go with five shutouts.

A Look At The Rest Of The Field
Loyola has been on a run most of its season, going 11-3 since Sept. 21. The only losses in that stretch have come to the Panthers and Big Ten foes Wisconsin and Michigan State. The Ramblers coasted into the semifinals with a 5-0 win over Green Bay. League Player of the Year Cynthia Morote-Ariza leads the league with 17 goals, seven assists and 41 points.

The only team ahead of Loyola in the league for scoring is Wright State. The Raiders pace the league with 2.00 goals per game. Amber Kasmer, who was the league's newcomer of the year, has found the back of the net 12 times, with Amy Miller scoring nine times and Jess Rooma six times. WSU routed Detroit 6-0 in the quarters to rebound from losses to UWM and Loyola over its last three regular season games.

Milwaukee has also found success against Loyola and Wright State. The Panthers are 14-1-2 all-time against Loyola, posting a 12-0-2 record since 1994. The Ramblers forced a 0-0 tie in their only tournament meeting in 2004.

Wright State is another team the Panthers have met often in the league tournament, facing the Raiders six times in eight years between 1995-02. Milwaukee is 14-5-5 all-time vs. WSU, including 3-1-2 in the tournament.

A Look At The Quarterfinals
Milwaukee 1, Cleveland State 0 - Junior Beth Steuer scored in the 15th minute and the Panther defense did the rest as Milwaukee scored a 1-0 win over Cleveland State in the Horizon League Quarterfinals Saturday night at Engelmann Field. Milwaukee did not allow a shot in eliminating the Vikings.

Panthers In The League Tourney
Milwaukee has won a league-best four league tournament titles, last doing so in 2005. Overall, UWM is 17-7-5 in league tournament play and has advanced to the league title game eight times. In fact, the Panthers have never gone back-to-back years without a title game appearance. That record is thanks to a 7-4-1 mark all-time in league semifinal matches. Milwaukee is in the semifinals for the 13th time in its 14 years as a member of the Midwestern Collegiate Conference/Horizon League.

Horizon League Tournament Notes
• The Panthers are the tournament's top seed for the ninth time, including the last two seasons when hosting rights were attached to it.
• UWM is 4-1 at home in the tournament, also hosting in 2002 as part of the league's rotation of sites.
• Milwaukee is 3-2 in league tournament games that go to penalty kick shootouts, winning its last two.

Zero-For-Zero
On sure fire way to give up no goals is to not allow any shots. That's exactly what the Panthers did in their quarterfinal match with Cleveland State. It marked the fourth time in school history that UWM did not allow a shot in a game. The last time occurred two years to the day prior on Nov. 3, 2005. That game was also against Cleveland State and in the league quarterfinals.

Surprise, Kane Has Another Record
Junior Erin Kane has been quite thorough in her attempt to break every school record the program has. In fact, with Milwaukee's win in the league quarterfinals, Kane eclipsed the school record for career wins by a goalkeeper with her 37th. She had tied the record Oct. 21 vs. Wright State. In the second minute of the WSU match, she also surpassed the record for career minutes by a goalkeeper. As just a junior, Kane already holds career records for minutes (5622:41), GAA (0.576), shutouts (36) and has been hovering around the record for save percentage. Also, her GAA has been as high as sixth in NCAA Division I history, while she will not officially join the all-time list until she graduates. The only record that is likely out of reach for her is saves, where she sits fifth with 168.

Horizon League Champions
With the Panthers' 2-0 win over Wright State Oct. 21, 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.

Leading The League
Since 2000, UWM has been untouchable in league play, posting a 48-1-3 league mark in that time and winning its eighth-straight league title this season. The streak is currently the second-longest in the country, trailing only Penn State's streak of 10-straight Big Ten crowns.

Home, Sweet Home
Engelmann Field is a tough place to play if you're not the Panthers. Milwaukee is 111-51-15 (.669) all-time at Engelmann. Over the last two-plus years, the team is 20-1-5 at home, including a school-record 7-0-2 this season and 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).

All-League
Four Panthers were named to the All-Horizon League First Team and two more were named to the all-newcomer team when the league's awards were announced. Senior Amanda Winn, juniors Erin Kane and Sarah Teegarden and sophomore Kate Megna were the team's first-team representatives. Meanwhile, freshmen Heather Roadhouse and Nicole Sperl were picked for the newcomer team.

Three In A Row... Go For One More
Erin Kane and Sarah Teegarden are in a familiar position as they were each named to the all-league first team for the third-straight season. They are the fifth and sixth Panthers to earn first-team honors three times in their career. Kane is also the first goalkeeper with three first-team awards, while the pair could be the first UWM players ever with four first-team awards in their careers next season.

Moynihan's Mantle
Head coach Michael Moynihan collected his fifth career Horizon League Coach of the Year award when the league announced its post-season awards this week. He earned the honor in hist first season in 1997 and again in back-to-back years in 2000 and 2001. He had last earned the award in 2004.

These Go To Eleven (One Louder)
As has become tradition in Milwaukee, the Panthers have gone on an extended unbeaten streak toward the end of the regular season. When UWM lost at Texas A&M, it was its first loss since Sept. 16, posting an 8-0-3 record since. At 11 games, the streak was 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 went 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 Oct. 19 vs. Cleveland State. The team busted out for a season-high six goals against the Vikings. 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 Oct. 19. UWM also took 42 shots, its most since Nov. 2, 1997.

League Run
By finishing the league season a near-perfect 7-0-1, UWM pushed its league-record 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 end of October did not go as the Panthers had planned, but it doesn't take away from what they have been able to accomplish in the month. With a 7-1-1 record this season in the month of October, Milwaukee has pushed its record in the month to 47-9-6 (.806) since 2000. Most impressive is that the mark includes a streak of 24-straight October matches without a loss (22-0-2) the team carried until Oct. 26. Milwaukee had not lost a game in the 10th month of the year since a 2-0 loss to Wisconsin Oct. 21, 2004.

Everybody's Player Of The Week
Senior Pam Shipway earned a pair of honors Oct. 24 after her performance Sept. 16-21. 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.

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.

Keeping It To A Minimum
Oct. 26 in Texas, the Panthers conceded more than one goal in a game for the first time this season. In fact, Milwaukee had 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.

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
• Milwaukee has been issued just one caution this season, a yellow card to head coach Michael Moynihan Sept. 23. That makes UWM one of just five teams in the nation with one or fewer card this season. Alabama State has none, while Connecticut, Belmont, Harvard and Holy Cross have one each.
• 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.
• UWM posted a perfect 2-0 record at the Milwaukee Cup for the second-straight year, but won its first cup title in the eight-year history of the tourney.
• Sophomore Erin Kreuser was named the Offensive MVP of the Milwaukee Cup and was joined by senior Amanda Winn, junior Sarah Teegarden and freshman Heather Roadhouse on the all-tournament team.
• 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 winner of the Horizon League Tournament will earn the league's automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament. The pairings will be announced Monday, Nov. 12, at 7 p.m. on ESPNews. The first and second rounds will be played Nov. 16-18.