Milwaukee v. Michigan State Match Report

Milwaukee 3, Michigan State 2
Aug. 19, 2011 – DeMartin Stadium (East Lansing, Mich.)

Womans of the Match: I may not do this a lot this season, but we have an offensive and defensive Woman of the Match today. Sarah Hagen gets the nod on offense with two goals and an assist. She was dominant when she had the ball, narrowly missing a hat trick twice in the second half, once by hitting the post. Makenzie Gillaspie stood out in an all-around defensive effort. All four defenders played well, but she made her presence known with a number of key defensive stops.

NOTES: Hagen scored a goal in her fourth-straight game, dating back to the last three games last season … today’s game followed the same script as the teams’ meeting last season with UWM getting a 3-0 lead in the first half and MSU with two in the second … Hagen now has 69 career goals and 156 points … she also upped her school record to 19 career game-winning goals … the Panthers are now 3-7 all-time against Michigan State, winning the last two meetings … four freshmen started the game—Emily Scott, Kelsey Holbert, Amy Kauffung and Kelly Lewers … Hannah Kaul also made her first collegiate start and played 86 minutes … Gillaspie, Kauffung, Scott, Holbert, Mary Wandolowski, Keara Thompson and Jamie Forbes played all 90 minutes … this is the fourth-straight season Milwaukee opened the season against a Big Ten team (3-0-1) and second-straight on the road (2-0).

Iron Woman Watch (Played every minute this season): 90 minutes (Gillaspie, Kauffung, Scott, Holbert, Wandolowski, Thompson, Forbes)

Up Next: The Panthers return home to host DePaul Sunday.

Live Blog: Milwaukee @ Michigan State

Women's Soccer's 2011 Regular Season opener at Michigan State.

Lindsay Laur Heading off to the World of Pro Hoops

Former Panther Lindsay Laur is headed to Puerto Rico to play basketball with the Carolina Giants after signing a professional contract earlier this week. She won’t have much time to get used to her surroundings, as the season opens Friday and she even thought she would probably go right from getting off the plane directly to practice.

She stopped by the SID office before she headed out and had a chance to talk about the opportunity.

“I feel like I want to keep playing as long as I love the game and stay healthy,” Laur said. “I feel like I honestly owe it to myself. I have a God-given talent to play, so I want to keep playing. If it comes to a point that I don’t love it, I will move on to the next chapter in my life. At this point it’s truly what I want to do for at least the next year or two.”

Laur also spoke about the possibility of playing in Europe in the future.

The former UWM star will miss her Panther teammates, but felt her career here in Milwaukee has really prepared her for this next step in her playing career.

“It is crazy how much you can learn in four years and it went so by quickly,” Laur said. “I am going to always give my best effort, to be disciplined in everything I do, pay attention to the details, and to persevere if things get tough.”

We will try and keep up with Lindsay with an update from time to time, but she already told me that the easiest way to follow her along the way in Puerto Rico would be to follow her on Twitter. Find her @LindsayLaur11.

Milwaukee v. Northern Illinois Match Report

Milwaukee 4, Northern Illinois 1 (Exhibition)
Aug. 14, 2011 – Engelmann Stadium (Milwaukee, Wis.)

Woman of the Match: Sarah Hagen scored two goals and assisted on a third over a 2:15 span and played just 12 minutes in the game. She tallied three goals (2 game-winners) and an assist in 57 minutes of play against Northwestern and Northern Illinois.

Notes: Milwaukee started and finished the game strong on defense with 12 shots on goal in the first half and four shots on goal in the finished the game with four SOG over the final 22 minutes ... Three freshman started both exhibition games against NCAA competition ... IF this was a regular season game, the 21 seconds between UWM goals would be the shortest time between Panther goals in school history, but exhibition stats don't count.

Next Up: The Panthers open the regular season Friday (Aug. 21) at Michigan State.

Milwaukee v. Northwestern Match Report

Milwaukee 2, Northwestern 1 (Exhibition)
Aug. 8, 2011 – Lakeside Field (Evanston, Ill.)

Woman of the Match

Morgan LaPlant - She scored the game’s first goal and nearly added a second in the second half. One of four starting freshmen, she was impressive in her first collegiate action.

Beyond the Box Score

- There were no stats kept… Sorry… I’m bummed about it, too.

Notes

- Four freshman started: LaPlant, Amy Kauffung, Kelsey Holbert and Emily Scott. Five more freshmen debuted off the bench.

- Kauffung played with the Panthers during the spring season.

- Counting the 2010 regular season, six games with the U.S. U23 Women’s National Team and today, Sarah Hagen has scored in 10-straight games. We could include the spring and her WPSL season, but the streak would not exist and what fun is that?

STARTERS: Jamie Forbes (GK), Mary Wandolowski, Kauffung, Hobart, Makenzie Gillaspie, Hagen, Scott, Keara Thompson, Hannah Kaul, Laurel Ragalie, LaPlant.

RESERVES: Sara Stern, Helen Steinhauser, Melanie Coderre, Vienna Behnke, Natalie Fettinger (GK), Kelly Lewers, Stephanie Condon, Emma Worthington, Lauren Jimenez.

Next Up

Two exhibition games this weekend, Saturday against a team of Panther alumni and Sunday against Northern Illinois. Both games will be played at Engelmann Stadium.

Meier, Williams, Haarsma Should Be Among League's Best In 11-12

The Panthers did lose a pair of key performers from this past season in Anthony Hill and Tone Boyle, and there is little question that filling in those gaps will be a prime focus for Milwaukee when practice starts about three months from now.

But, UWM seems to have a pretty good base to start from, as the Panthers will likely have three of the league's top players in Tony Meier, Kaylon Williams and James Haarsma. The numbers can build an awfully good case for that.

Meier is the fourth-leading returning scorer in the Horizon League. His 12.0 points per game rank just behind Ray McCallum (13.5 ppg) and Chase Simon (13.5 ppg) of Detroit as well as Trevon Harmon (13.2 ppg) of Cleveland State. Just five of the top 20 league scorers from a season ago return.

Haarsma sat out last season after transferring from Evansville. But in 2009-10, he averaged 7.1 rebounds per game with the Purple Aces. That figure is the second-best among returning Horizon League players, with Eli Holman of Detroit leading the way at 9.6 rpg.

Williams is actually the fifth-leading returning rebounder, having averaged 5.6 boards per game last season. But we all know his forte is in dishing the ball out. He led the league in assists last season, so of course he is the leading returnee this season. But, he appears to be right around the top 20 of returnees nationally. Officially there were 22 ahead of him at the end of last season with eligibility remaining, but seeing a handful of early entries and/or transfers above him should place him just above that 20 mark.

A Volleyball Numbers Game

As the start of our fall sports season grows closer, we’re busy working on preseason information, online guides and all of the background and facts we’ll use during 2011.

Yesterday, volleyball was on my plate, and now that Susie Johnson has been the head coach for four seasons, it seemed like a good time to add up all of her numbers in those typical “record when” categories.

Overall, Susie is 85-36 in four season and 53-11 in Horizon League regular season matches. Impressive numbers to say the least and ones you probably already knew about. But, how about these numbers – some pretty good tells on what the Panthers do to be successful.

Hitting Percentage – It seems to be the best go-to stat for determining a winner. In four seasons under Johnson, UWM is 81-8 when hitting better than its opponent and 4-28 when hitting worse. Plus, Milwaukee is 55-5 in the last four seasons when hitting above .200.

Defense – Milwaukee has held its opponent under .200 92 times (winning 76 of those matches), while opponents have hit better than .200 just 29 times (UWM is 9-20 in those contests). The Panthers have also outdug their opponent 81 times (winning 65 of those) while being on the short end of the dig category 38 times (19-19).

Winning The Close Ones – UWM has gone to five sets 34 times in the last four years, winning 22 of those matches.

League domination – The 53-11 league mark over the last four years – plus a 7-2 mark in the league tournament – has seen the Panthers almost always take care of business against the teams that have typically been in the bottom half of the league. Milwaukee is a combined 39-4 against Loyola, UIC, Green Bay, Wright State and Youngstown State.

All pretty impressive numbers and ones we’ll use to follow trends during the 2011 year.

By the way, the most impressive number of all is this – this year, Milwaukee will be looking for either a league regular season or tournament championship for the 15th-straight season.