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!