UW-Milwaukee women’s soccer looks for their seventh straight conference championship this week as they enter the Horizon League tournament as the top seed and hosts.
They play Robert Morris in the semifinals on Thursday at 1:00 p.m. at Engelmann Stadium after earning a first-round bye. Robert Morris finished 5-6-7 overall and 4-3-3 in the Horizon League. The match will be streamed live on ESPN Plus.
Milwaukee ended the season with a 10-6-2 overall record and a 9-0-1 record in the conference.
Robert Morris defeated IU-Indianapolis 1-0 to move on to the semifinals.
“We know Thursday’s game is going to be a challenge, it always is in these games,” said head coach Kevin Boyd. “They hinge on little singular moments, and we have to be good in those moments.”
Detroit Mercy beat Purdue Fort-Wayne 2-1 and will face Northern Kentucky in the other semifinal matchup.
8 players Receive All-League Honors
The Panthers sport eight players who earned all-league honors for their regular season performances.
Six were given first-team honors, the most for a season in program history.
Midfielder Lainey Higgins took home Horizon League Player of the Year. Higgins played in all 18 games this season and tallied 8 goals and 3 assists.
“To see her this season only grow and get better is truly inspiring and unbelievable,” said defender Anna Champine on Higgins. “Her contribution to this team is so crucial… she’s such a leader on and off the field and truly helps us so much every single day.”
Last year the Horizon League Player of the Year award went to forward Kayla Rollins.
Rollins won the Horizon League Offensive Player of the Year honor for the second straight season. She scored 13 goals and chipped in 3 assists on the campaign. Rollins has now led the Horizon League in scoring back-to-back seasons.
Goalkeeper Parker Donahugh brought home the Horizon League Goalkeeper of the Year award. Donahugh and the Panthers’ defense only allowed two goals in 10 conference games this season.
They are joined in Horizon League first-team honors by defenders Champine and Elizabeth Reece, along with midfielder Senya Meurer.
Defender Ellie Rebmann earned second-team honors. Rebmann led the team with 6 assists on the season.
“Ellie is our growth player this year,” said Boyd about Rebmann’s improvement this season. “She went from having never really started before… she’s now an impact player.”
Midfielder Natalie Zodrow made the All-Freshman Team.
Tough Start to the Season
Despite a strong finish, the start of the season was quite a challenge for the Panthers.
They began the year playing multiple tough non-conference opponents. The Panthers fell to three top-30 teams based on NCAA’s RPI rankings No. 27 Xavier, No. 15 Ohio State, Valparaiso and No. 28 Minnesota to begin their 2024 campaign. Four games, four losses.
They picked up their first win of the season when they beat Illinois-Chicago 3-0.
The Panthers did not translate that win into more results against Wisconsin and Harvard, where they lost both games. Wisconsin is now ranked as the 35th-best team in the country, according to the NCAA Women’s Soccer RPI. At the time of the Harvard match, the Crimson had only given up one goal on the season. The Panthers scored twice but conceded four in that one.
“If we didn’t go through that, we would not be in this position today to be in the postseason.” Said Champine about the non-conference schedule.
The next match was across town where the Panthers picked up a gutsy 1-1 draw against intra-city rival Marquette.
Boyd pointed to the second half of that game as a vital moment for the season. The Panthers were able to hold out for a draw and buck the trend of conceding late goals which gave away results.
Before Horizon League action began, the Panthers sat at an uncharacteristic 1-6-1 record.
Dominant Horizon League Campaign
But Milwaukee’s fortunes would change once the Horizon League games got underway.
The Panthers ripped off three straight wins without conceding a goal against Northern Kentucky, Wright State and Oakland.
The only game where the Panthers did not take all three points in a conference game was a match with Detroit Mercy in Milwaukee.
After that match, the Panthers would hit another stretch of great form where they won the next five games without giving up a goal.
Some of those include dominant wins like a 4-0 victory against Youngstown State, a 3-0 win against Robert Morris and a 5-0 result against Cleveland State.
The Panthers’ last game of the season stretched over two days thanks to poor weather.
In the 62nd minute of their contest at Green Bay, the game was postponed until the next day. Milwaukee ended up with a 5-1 win.
In total, the Panthers won nine out of their 10 conference games.
Milwaukee has made a habit of winning the Horizon League regular season and playoff championships in recent history, but they are not letting that get to their heads.
“Just because of those championships doesn’t mean we don’t want to continue to get better,” said Champine. “It just raises the standard even higher each year, so everyone wants to perform better and continue the habit of winning championships.”