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Panthers make school history
Women start season 5-0 for first time ever
By Shannon Menefee
Crushing Western Michigan University 4-1 Friday night, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee was able to begin their season with a 5-0 record, which has never been done in school history.
Milwaukee has started the season with great success, now they need to maintain that success.
“I expect them all to do well as team. Soccer is a team sport and it'll take a team effort to win another championship,” said Head Coach Michael Moynihan. “They enjoy each other's success and they know that these successes contribute to the team's success. They also know that individual success is not possible without a supporting cast.”
The Panther’s began Friday’s game quick, with Kate Megna scoring the first goal against the Broncos. UWM was able to hold the lead going into the half.
Quickly in the second half, Milwaukee again scored another goal by Nicole Sperl and assisted by Beth Steuer. UWM now had control with a 2-0 lead.
Soon UWM showed their aggression by putting the pressure on Western Michigan. The Broncos played a player down due to Alison Szczypka gaining two yellow cards in less than three minutes. After that the Panthers scored two more goals, showing their dominance on the field.
Sarah Hagen added the third goal to the board and then Steuer put the Panthers in the winning position with the fourth and final goal of the game, making the score 4-0.
With Western Michigan not putting up enough of a fight for Milwaukee, the Panthers were able to put every active player on the field.
WMU was able to put a point on the board with 11 seconds left in the game, which was not enough to even catch up to UWM, but ended the game with a score of 4-1.
Milwaukee started their season off in a good position winning the Milwaukee Cup for the second year in a row.
“The team was very excited to win the Milwaukee Cup for the second straight year,” said Moynihan. “I think we come out of it aware of a few things that we need to work on, but also very optimistic about the talent and possibilities for the remainder of the season. It has given us confidence and it has fueled our ambition to do well.”
Making school history and dominating in the field are a very dangerous combination. They have been very successful at home, but they need to show their power at the upcoming away games.
“Our whole game is a continual work in progress. While we've already scored a bunch of goals, we can still score more. Our play in the final third of the field will be something we work on regularly,” said Moynihan. “Defensively, we've given up more goals than usual and, this needs to stop. We can't expect to score as much as we have been all season long. Someone will shut us down and we need to be able to shut our opponents down. Fortunately, most of the goals against us are things we can fix. We have a lot of new faces in our defense and it is a group that will continue to get better and better as the season progresses.”
UWM will play their next few games away in New Mexico and Minnesota.
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