To no one’s surprise, the Milwaukee Panthers are your Horizon League Women’s Soccer Champions… again.
It almost feels like a given at this point.
The Horizon League Coach of the Year, Kevin Boyd, said it’s anything but given.
“People don’t realize how difficult this is, they think that ‘oh, it’s Milwaukee, they’re just going to win,’ that’s not the case,” said Boyd. “We get results because we don’t read our own press clippings, we don’t spend time patting ourselves on the back, we’re looking at one game only and that’s that next game, we don’t take our eyes off that, and that’s who we are, and it’s allowed this type of success.”
Playoffs
Milwaukee blazed through the Horizon League playoffs with a 3-0 win over Oakland in the semifinal and a 4-0 victory in the championship game over in-state rival Green Bay.
Kristina Karlof had about as good a postseason as humanly possible. She contributed to every goal in the semifinal and added another goal and assist in the final.
In the final, she scored her second “Olimpico” of the year. The first one made it onto SportsCenter’s top 10.
“I’m a senior, I really want to win this year a little bit more than last,” said Karlof after the semifinal. “I just really want to win.”
Her desire to win earned her the Tournament MVP award.
Milwaukee had a favorable path to their 19th NCAA Tournament appearance. They ended up playing the two lowest seeds in the playoffs.
Mallory McGuire
The Horizon League Player of the Year and Offensive Player of the Year didn’t even think she was going to play soccer in her last year of college after three seasons at Missouri.
“I was really considering quitting my senior year and just playing three years,” said McGuire. “But this has been such a great experience and a great way to end my college career.”
The Brookfield native had the opportunity to play close to home, and she took full advantage of the opportunity ending with nine goals and six assists on the season.
Her playstyle was perfect for what Milwaukee needed at the attacking midfielder position.
“I love that this team likes to play on the ground and through the middle, and obviously my style is a little bit more playing on the ground, I’m not terribly big,” said the 5-foot-2 senior. “It’s been great playing through the middle, [getting] coached by [Kevin Boyd] and working with all of these players that are all very good.”
Full Honors
2025 was another year where the Panthers racked up Horizon League honors.
Player of the Year/Offensive Player of the Year: Mallory McGuire
Defensive Player of the Year: Ellie Rebmann
Goalkeeper of the Year: Bella Hollenbach
All-Horizon League First Team: Mallory McGuire, Ellie Rebmann, Bella Hollenbach, Anna Champine and Lola Wojcik.
All-Horizon League Second Team: Emily Petring and Jenni Andjelic
All-Horizon League Third Team: Kristina Karlof and Natalie Zodrow
2025 Horizon League All-Tournament Team: Kristina Karlof (MVP), Lola Wojcik, Anna Champine and Bella Hollenbach.
Season Recap
For the second straight season, the Panthers faced a gauntlet of opponents in the non-conference portion of their schedule.
Milwaukee played three teams ranked at the time; #23 Wisconsin, #20 Michigan State and #22 North Carolina. The Panthers lost all three games.
Unlike 2024, Milwaukee got a breakthrough result against a top opponent when they beat the Minnesota Gophers 1-0 in Minneapolis on Sept. 5.
“Minnesota was a great game, we really came together,” said junior defender Ellie Rebmann. “That really set the tone going into the conference, and then we just built off of it.”
Milwaukee finished with a 5-4-1 record in the non-conference part of its campaign.
The Panthers were more than battle-tested by the time conference action started.
Milwaukee went 8-0-2 in the league to win the regular season title along with earning the one-seed and homefield advantage in the playoffs.
Dating back to 2022, the Panthers have gone a record 47 consecutive Horizon League games without a loss (39 regular season/8 postseason).
Diverse Attack Key to Success
Milwaukee’s production came from almost everywhere throughout the season.
The Panthers had 13 goal scorers in total, with six scoring at least four times.
The starting lineup mainly featured Lola Wojcik (9 g,5 a), Kristina Karlof (8 g, 8 a) and Zoey Pagels (5 g, 4 a) as forwards with McGuire (9 g, 6 a) sitting beneath them.
When Milwaukee went to their bench the production didn’t fall off thanks to super-sub duo Emily Petring (8 g, 6 a) and Ashlyn Skinner-Barrett (4 g, 7 a).
Rebmann took a big leap after earning the starting role at right back last season. She chipped in a team-high nine assists pairing with two goals.
Midfielder Natalie Zodrow and defender Kiersten White both added (1 g, 4 a) on the campaign.
Senior midfielder Jenni Andjelic scored three times and got an assist on the year.
“They can’t really scout all of us at once, which I think is great,” said Rebmann. “Our depth was amazing.”
Defense
Not to be forgotten is the stellar defense central to Milwaukee’s success.
Center back pairing Anna Champine and Savannah Sievert were huge in limiting opponents’ chances and helping the offense build out of the back.
Having the Horizon League Goalkeeper of the Year Bella Hollenbach also doesn’t hurt.
The outside backs of Kiersten White (who is a midfielder playing out of position, according to Boyd) and Rebmann have also been key to Milwaukee’s season.
About the only defensive flaw they have is on set pieces, where they have been shaky at times.
Tournament Opponent
The 15-seeded Milwaukee (13-4-3) will face the 2-seeded Michigan State Spartans (13-2-6) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday at 5:00 p.m. in East Lansing.
The Panthers’ loss to the Spartans in August was easily their worst of the year, finishing 9-0 after a disastrous second half.
But after a lot of winning since then, the Panthers know what they must do.
“We know what’s coming, and it’s great that we got to experience all the teams that we got to play in non-conference,” said McGuire. “We’re not worried going into this tournament, we know what to expect, we know how we need to play and we know what we need to do.”
It will be an uphill battle against the (now) #9-ranked team in the country, but if the Panthers can limit the Spartans chances and set-piece opportunities, anything is possible.