UW Milwaukee women’s soccer NCAA Tournament bound again
MILWAUKEE — The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Panthers continue their dominance over the Horizon League. The women’s soccer team capped off their 4th Horizon League title in a row this year. Their most recent outing vs the Oakland Golden Grizzlies crowned them champions again, making it four years straight after winning the crown in 2018, 2019, and 2020.
It all happened at the Horizon League Tournament Championship at Engelmann Stadium the 2,200 seat stadium at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Campus on Milwaukee’s east side. The Panthers came into their home stadium with a scorching 17-1 record. Goals from Lesley Kiesling and Maggy Henschler and another shutout from Elaina LaMacchia sent the Panthers to a 2-0 victory over Oakland Saturday afternoon, improving their record to 18-1. Oakland’s record dropped to 11-9-1.
The Panthers punched their ticket to the NCAA Tournament. for the fourth consecutive season and the 15th time in program history. In the four years of being champions, the Panthers have an impressive record of 60-7-3, a .979 winning percentage.
It was a wonderful fall day for soccer. “I definitely want to thank the fans for their support and the great crowd that came out today to watch us play.” Head coach Troy Fabiano said. “It never gets old. What a lot of people don’t understand is the success that they have had – and continue to have – always comes from everybody’s best shot. To run the table this year in the Horizon League, and host this, and still win this is huge for this group. It just shows the mentality of these players.”
The game started a little choppy with the teams getting a feel for each other. “I don’t know if it was nerves or just the excitement of being in the championship game,” Fabiano said. “For most players, it’s their fourth time around. But I feel like both sides were feeling each other out and trying to get possession and it was a little uneasy.”
That all changed at the 23:35 mark of the game when Henschler banged in the eventual game-winner. It came off a corner kick, with Jelena Sever getting the first attempt on it. Her shot was blocked and the ball came right back to Henschler on the right-wing, sending the ball back to the far post for her third goal of the season, making the game 1-0 Panthers.
Later in the game, Kiesling punched in a goal in the 76th minute, giving the Panthers a 2-0 league at the 75:09 mark. That proved to be enough to put away Oakland for good, as LeMacchia’s defense shined on the defensive end in the shut-out with her five saves. “We’ve talked about it over the years; maybe she is not as busy as others – but she is a gamer and she showed up today.” Fabiano said of Lamacchia. Lamacchia joins Kiesling on the Horizon League All-Tournament Team.
The Panther’s two clutch goals and five saves from LaMacchia gave them a 2-0 Panthers win, a Horizon League championship, four-peat, and one ticket to the NCAA tournament.
‘In the second half, we just wanted to keep them in front of us because of the success we had in Oakland with them trying to break us down (When the two teams played a couple of weeks ago.) Fabiano said. “Then we talked about hitting on the counter and got a great goal by Lesley to put it away.”
With the Panthers Horizon League Tournament title wrapped up, they will advance to the NCAA tournament for the 15th time in program history, with first-round action taking place November 12-14. The NCAA has revealed that the Panthers will travel to take on another good defensive team, 16-2-1 Xavier, to kick off the tournament.
This is an unedited user writing submission. The views, information, or opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Best Version Media or its employees.
