Wrapping Up

It has officially been over week since we finished our season and to be honest, I still don’t think it has hit me. I also think that I am slightly in denial, because not only did my season end, but my career as a Panther ended with it. With that, I am going to try and reflect on my career at UWM and the amazing experience it was.

Time flies. Everyone tells you time flies, but you’ll never believe how fast it actually goes until you’re at the finish line. As long as the morning conditioning sessions and preseason practices feel, the four or five years are there and gone before you know it. I think I can speak for the players and parents when I say that you can’t take a game or day for granted.

I’m currently wishing for just one more game...

Hard work. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard. In many cases, we have been the underdogs, but come out on top or put up a stronger fight than expected. From the in-state rivals to the big games against top teams in the region and nation, us Panthers never fall back down from the challenge. All the belief we ever needed came from within the locker room, and our family and friends that support us.

Celebrate. From injuries to mistakes on the field, things aren’t going to always go your way, and if you bypass the good times, they will get covered up by the bad. I am blessed to be able to say that I have been a conference champion in my time at Milwaukee, but some of my best memories come from a year where you wouldn’t think much good can come out. My entire athletics career has been filled with ups and downs, but letting the bad days and moments keep you down keeps you from learning all the little lessons sports have to offer. Oh, and the fact that celebratory pictures make the best pictures!

Family. My family has supported me every step of the way, and been there at every turn. I think I can count on my fingers how many games of my career that I didn’t have at least one of my parents in the stands ... and that comes with four siblings who all play(ed) sports also. (Thanks mom and dad!!)

Our team has been close-knit and caring all the way through and I’m very thankful for that. Don’t worry, we still have the small fights and disagreements families do, but it doesn’t keep us from getting to where we want to go. As the ‘team mom’ the last two seasons, I think it’s safe to call the girls I have been around my family.

Thank you. Thank you to my coaches; they put in so much extra time and effort to make sure we are in a place to succeed. Thank you to my teammates; you have all pushed me to be the best me, enjoyed the highs, and pushed through the lows, and I couldn’t be more thankful for that. Thank you to my family; you have hauled me to practices, watched in some miserable weather, and endured the journey every step of the way. Thank you to everyone else; the athletic department, other parents, my friends, and every Panther fan for believing in us and taking part in what we do.

I’m signing off for the final time, but I can’t wait to see where the remaining group of girls carries this program. We tend to be more motivated by loss than we are by a win. Not making it to the NCAA tournament kills us inside, and I anticipate they will be there soon. So for all our fans, have faith, and keep cheering!

~peace, love, panthers~ Mar

Tourney Time!

Panther fans, get ready for some fun soccer to be played this weekend in the Horizon League tournament!

First, let’s recap our final regular season game of the year. We took on Cleveland State, and a win gave us our 16th!!! regular-season championship in the last 17 seasons!

We came out firing on all cylinders and put ourselves in a good place as we went into halftime up 6-0. Goals came from across the board with Cass scoring twice, Anna scoring twice, Maddie once and Marissa once. We were machines scoring off of corners, and we’re hoping that carries over to this weekend. It was a really fun game of soccer in front of an awesome crowd!

We did give up a late goal and the final was 6-1, but a lot of girls got playing time, 'Senior Night' (pictured below) couldn’t have gone much better, and we clinched the first seed to host the tournament this weekend!!

Speaking of which, we have spent the week getting ourselves ready to battle for the tournament title. It started with our annual Halloween practice (see below) Sunday morning (shoutout to Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy and our extra Coach Fabianos), and carried high energy through a positive week of training! After the quarterfinal games took place Monday, we are set to play Oakland in the Semifinals tonight at 7 pm!!

The field was getting all decked out in Horizon League banners and signs, so we got a good taste of the atmosphere at practice today! Bring your friends and family to witness some exciting soccer! We do our best to host because our home crowds never disappoint!

Free pizza for UWM students also! (Who doesn’t love pizza?!)

Home Stretch

I’m back to recap a few more Panther wins as we get ready for our final home game of the regular season. I’ll start by rewinding back to last Wednesday when we took on UW-Green Bay.

We headed up there, and got to campus, although most of us couldn’t really tell since Green Bay seems to be in the middle of nowhere. Minus a little bit of cold, it was a pretty nice night for some soccer. We went up 1-0 fairly early in the first half on a goal from Aubrey, but got called for a penalty kick shortly after. Green Bay converted on the PK to tie the game at one.

Kelli Swenson converted on a corner kick just before halftime to put us back ahead, and the score-line remained the same for us to head home with another big win on the road. My sister was able to make the short trip from St. Norbert and brought her coach along for the game so I can’t fail to mention that. Jen went above and beyond and printed a poster size headshot of me, which you can see below!

Following Green Bay, we trained another day on our home field, before the team took off for Youngstown State.

I missed out on this trip as I was home for my brother’s wedding (Congrats Jordan and Mallory), but I got to follow along for the team bringing home a convincing win! The scoring was split evenly between the two halves, with Lolo and Jen scoring in the first half, and McKaela and Aubrey both scoring in the second. Shoutout to Aubrey who is working with a three-game scoring streak!

Our final home game, and SENIOR NIGHT! is tomorrow (FRIDAY) night at 7 pm! Come out and bring some friends as we hope to clinch a regular season championship!

NKU is fighting until the end so we need to take care of business on our end to protect the title! In honor of senior night, I went back in the archives to find the roster picture of each of us in our first season here at UWM, we really haven’t changed much if you ask me!

Back on Track

Happy to report back with another Panther win after a game with Wright State. Most of you know that it was a big game for us (all of them are though), but this game was a battle for the top. Over halfway through the conference season now, we put ourselves in a great position going forward with a thrilling 2-0 win over the Raiders Saturday afternoon.

Another back and forth game for the first half had things even at zero yet again going into the break. It stayed that way until the 79th minute.

From there, we knew we had a job to do, and knew we needed a goal to get us where we wanted to be. Aubrey was able to control the ball with her back to the goal, turn, and fire a shot to the back post, to put us up 1-0! She was taken down as she shot, so the goal celebration started while she was on the ground. Once she was up, and we figured out it was gauze in her mouth, not a missing tooth, we were ready to finish the game strong!

Not too long after that, we had a free kick about 40-45 yards out. With the wind at our backs, I dumped the ball into the box and left the rest up to my teammates. McKaela was running full steam into the box, got a quick touch on the ball and put it in the back of the net to give us a two-goal lead with a few minutes left.

From there, we stayed strong, kept the ball on our half of the field and walked away with full control of things in conference the rest of the way. If we take care of business, we will end up on top.

Friday night, we spent a little time bonding as a team carving pumpkins! This is the fourth year in a row for us, and weather cooperated pretty well for us to be able to carve in Anna, Aubrey, Cass, Erin, and Syd’s driveway.

See below for a few pictures of the group. The group had some fun spending time with each other outside of soccer for a change!

Next up is our in-state conference rivalry game against Green Bay. Head up-state Wednesday night or catch the match online! The next three games get even bigger as we want to control the standings the rest of the way out!

 

Keep Fighting

I have to apologize for the delay in blog posts ... you can thank my professors for that! On the plus side, I have two games to recap, after the gap between posts.

A week and a half ago we traveled to Detroit and took on the Titans. We left mid-morning on Friday, stopped by the field for a very brief walkthrough - very brief due to the rainy weather and lack of lights. We made our way to Applebee’s for a solid dinner out. It became very entertaining when a friendly young guy joined one of our dinner tables. Needless to say he believed we were from Milwaukee, California, and it didn’t take long for the manager to ask him to leave us alone.

We had a Saturday matinee game, and since we like to keep things interesting for the fans, we made sure the game went to extra time. Not due to lack of possession or attack, but Detroit was a strong side with a lot of heart. Doing what they do best though, Anna and Callie, with the help of Aubrey this time, snuck in a goal in the 109th minute to give us a golden goal win for the ride home!

Next came a LONG week of practice before we took on Oakland this past Saturday. Oakland plays a very similar style to us, so it came down to who could do it better. It was a rather boring first half, we apologize, but a beautiful goal in the second half hopefully made up for it. It came off a quick give-and-go between Jen and I, and then a long ball through the back line to Callie, who nice and composed, beat the keeper and passed the ball in. That goal held on to be enough for the win!

Saturday was also our annual "Pink Out" game, so this week’s shout-out goes to all the cancer survivors out there, and the hope of a cure to come in the future!

We are now preparing for Wright State in a battle for the top. They make a visit to Engelmann this Saturday at 2 PM, so come out and support! Only a few more home games on the season, and two weeks between the two we have left!

Grinding It Out

Hello Panther fans, blog fanatics, and everyone else in between...

I hope you are enjoying the cooler fall weather that started to settle in!

We are now 2-1 in conference, after games against Northern Kentucky and Valparaiso since I last blogged. Let’s start with last night’s game against Valpo.

We hit the road around 1 o’clock, hoping to avoid Chicago traffic and we did just that. We got to Valpo with about two and a half hours to spare, which is better than normal, we tend to run a little behind on our road trips. Once we were there, we fueled up with some Jimmy Johns, and headed to campus to prepare for the matchup with the Crusaders. Game time came, and Anna Smalley got us off to a quick start ... that must just be her thing. Jen took a strike from distance, the goalie got her hands on it but dropped it, and Anna was there to follow and put the ball in the back of the net.

We had control a majority of the first half but were unable to find another goal. Valpo got the equalizer in the first part of the second half, and we found ourselves in another overtime game. We fell short in this match, giving up a goal in the first overtime for our first conference loss on the year.

On a better note, we had a successful trip to Northern Kentucky over last weekend. Being their second season in the conference, it was our first trip there. After the way our bus ride there went, not many of us want to make that trip again. We came out ready to play on Saturday though, having a strong but scoreless first half, and getting a goal in the 75th minute to walk away with a 1-0 win. The goal came directly off of a corner, and many people question if it actually went in ... ask Anna, she saw first-hand and celebrated right away!

We now head to Detroit, to take on the Titans who sit at the top of the conference right now. Another long bus trip before we return home to Engelmann to play in front of the home crowd. I’m hoping Anny brings her bouncy ball and deck(s) of cards, so there is something to keep us busy again!

I hope you all follow along this weekend, should be a great game to watch!

On the Road Again

Hello Panther fans/blog fanatics! I don’t know about you, but we missed having a mid-week game this week and are ready for things this weekend! Before I get to what’s ahead, let’s recap last weekend with our conference opener!

We took on UIC at home Friday night, and got the conference season off to a strong start. Our offense kept rolling from our game against Chicago State just two days before. The scoring started early as I bent a corner into the back of the net just 3 minutes into the game. That goal wasn’t enough to initially put out the Flames though, as they found the back of the net about 3 minutes later. From there, it was all us.

Callie had herself quite the night, scoring twice and assisting on another. The early entry ball into Maddie created a beautiful one-touch finish and impressed quite a few folks in the stands.

McKaela came away with her first career goal after she chested/stomached?? the ball into the goal on a corner. Troy tells us to just let the ball hit us when we are that close and McKaela did just that.

Callie’s first goal came on a long service from Cassidy in the back line, and her second came on a long free kick that she one-timed past the keeper.

Next up, we hit the road to travel to Northern Kentucky. We have had the benefit of spending the week preparing for them, and getting ourselves set for another big conference match.

Unfortunately, we won’t be home for a little bit, but who doesn’t love a little road trip! We are hoping to keep the offense firing on all cylinders, and bring home a big win after this weekend! Follow along, I think you’ll enjoy the ride!