The 2018 Lanther Diaries: Entry No. 2

Hi everyone, it’s Sara again!!

A lot has happened since the last time I wrote to you all. School has started, and I apologize for not updating you all sooner. Don’t worry though, your Lady Panthers have been continuing with their winning season! Since we have last talked, we have gone on two road trips, both ending in winning results. The first trip sent us down to Macomb, Ill., to take on the Western Illinois. Due to the rainy weather, we had to play inside on turf, but that didn’t affect your Panthers from getting a winning result. A 3-1 win raised our spirits even more as we headed to Iowa to take on the Cyclones of Iowa State! One of our tougher opponents this season, we came in with lots of energy for a close game. The game was tight until the very end. Not until the 72nd minute did we score the first goal and soon Iowa State came back leading 2-1 until the 89th minute when McKaela scored to send us to overtime! The drama only started in OT when Iowa State missed a PK, and finally Jelena scored the game winner from Haley Johnson in the 98th minute!

After the exciting weekend, we headed back to Milwaukee for another week of practice in preparation for our first Horizon League conference game. After only 4 days back at home, we hit the road again to Youngstown, Ohio to take on the Penguins. After what felt like 16-hour bus ride, we finally arrived with only one thing on our minds, WIN!

We took a while to get going at the start of the game, but after a substitution and boost of team energy, Schill found the back of the net in the first half that would be the only goal score the whole game. With a record of 1-0 leading into conference and continuing our unbeaten streak, we headed back home with our next focus on cross-town rival Marquette!

Monday came along, and the team was buzzing all day with excitement for the big game. After the pounds of bug spray were applied (sorry Olivia for using it all), we took the field ready for what some say our most intense game of the season. First half ended 0-0, and we were ready to attack and score goals once the second half started. After an onslaught of shots and attack from us, Marquette was able to find their goal off a free kick with 17 minutes left in the game. Quickly, we shook our heads and started attacking again and again. We weren’t able to take advantage in the final minutes ending our unbeaten streak and leaving us with the first loss of the season.

As defeat sat with us for the first time in 27 games, we used it as a tool for inspiration and motivation to continue with nothing but success for the season. We bottled the angry, frustration, and heartache from the loss, and used our new energized, focused mindsets to ready us for our next conference game ahead.

Saturday night back under the lights of Englemann Stadium, a new refreshed Lanther team came out buzzing against the Flames of UIC. It only took 1 minute and 18 seconds for to score the first goal! The scoring didn’t stop there, and we found the net twice more to end the first half to end the first 3-1. To no surprise, the second half started as the first, we found the net for the last time in the 47th minute leading us to a 4-1 victory and a 2-0 record to start of the conference season.

Ending the week on a high note, your Lady Panthers look forward this week to two more conference match ups. Wednesday night we are heading up north to face Green Bay (hopefully we end in a better result than the Packers this week), and then we host Wright State on Saturday at 2 pm before the men’s team takes on Green Bay!

I can’t wait to see you all come out to support your Lanthers this weekend, and as always come back for another shot … with Petrone!

Nights Under the Lights: Entry No. 1 for 2018

Hello Panthers and welcome to season two, entry one of our Milwaukee Men’s soccer blog ‘Nights Under the Lights.’

As many of you know, my name is Francesco and I am a senior going into this upcoming fall soccer season. It’s my fourth and final year here in Milwaukee, and I know everyone surrounding the program is extremely excited for this upcoming season! With a very good mix of older players in their third and fourth seasons like myself, and a good chunk of new faces in the locker room as well, I know we have a team that can challenge for the Horizon League title and then some this 2018 year.

We’ve been after it since the first day of August as a team, with captain’s training starting up very early this year. Again, this is a time where we as captain’s get the team together without the coaches prior to preseason to play some small-sided games. We got some touches, got to know a lot of the new guys, and overall it was a very enjoyable time where we could just play without the pressures of official preseason.

After about a week and a half of captain’s training, it was time to get the real deal started. First things first, fitness testing on day one with some small-sided games. The coaches got after it right from the start, which is just what we needed. After a grueling preseason, with multiple days where we trained two, maybe three times, some heavy humidity and darting sunshine, along with a few preseason matches to get into form, we were ready for opening weekend in Macomb, Ill., against the Western-Illinois Leathernecks.

Last season we took three points from the Leathernecks on opening day at Engelmann Stadium, so we knew they were going to want to avenge that result. However, the game was on a Sunday late afternoon and they had played two days prior in Oakland, which was taken to double overtime. We knew we would be fresh, while a double-overtime on opening day is nothing but heavy on the legs no doubt, so we were looking forward to hopefully using that to our advantage. It was hot, and temperatures were in the late 90s and early 100s, with the humidity so intense the air almost felt sticky. After a rather slow first half, with each team feeling the other out, at the end of the first half sophomore Vuk Latinovich put away a free kick from about 25ish yards out! It was a great strike into the bottom corner, and from there we never looked back. The match ended 4-0 in favour of the Panthers, with additional goals from Alex ‘Whitey’ Sykes, Josh Kaye, and Sean Holmes. It was a fantastic start to the season and led to a happy ride home back to Milwaukee.

Next up was the University of Dayton Invitational, where we were scheduled to meet up with both the University of Dayton Flyers and Ohio State Buckeyes. First up was Dayton on the Friday night, and it being their home opener we knew the atmosphere would be electric. It was something we were all looking forward to, and the build-up to the match was very exciting. The fans were loud, both teams were ready to use the energy to their benefit. Unfortunately, things didn’t go the way we had planned, and we ended up losing the match 2-0. It wasn’t our best performance by any means, but we knew we could be better and we were determined to make things right come Sunday.

Preparation began for Big Ten side Ohio State, and preparation on Saturday consisted of both a pool and video session to help us get ready for the battle. It was another hot and humid day, where again temperatures were reaching the high 90s with the luxury of high humidity yet again. However, we as a team were more than eager to make things right in terms of our performance. We started off the game much better and in control, with good possession and dangerous counters as well. Finally, our play paid off and Evan Conway scored a brilliant flick on goal from a Latinovich cross and we were one-nil up! It was well deserved, and we carried that goal with us the rest of the match to win 1 nil. It was a great win that everyone contributed to in good style.

Our next matches come at home finally, against Valparaiso on Friday night and University of Pennsylvania on Sunday, both at Engelmann stadium at 7PM. We will continue to work hard and make each session and match count! Thanks for tuning in and we hope to see you at our home opening weekend!

Frankie

The 2018 Lanther Diaries: Entry No. 1

Hello Panther fans, and welcome to this year’s “Lanther Diaries” blog!

If you don’t know, my name is Sara Petrone, and I am a senior on the team from New Lenox, Ill. I am a history major with a minor in American Sign Language, and this year I will be your insider to all things Lanther Soccer!

It’s crazy to believe it has already been over a month since the team has returned to campus for another year of panther soccer! Preseason flew by with many days of what felt like never ending two a days, but your Lady Panthers worked hard and we all survived with help from teammates and dreams of a winning season! From the start of preseason, we were able to show off with two exhibition wins, but the real test came on August 17th during our home opener against Northern Illinois.

Before we kicked off the season, the team gathered for their own friendly competition in preparations for the following game day. The third annual hyrdo games were in full effect in Milwaukee!! Events involved the consumption of a large amount of water that would make any athletic trainer happy. Our team broke into five groups representing various countries around the world. Team Ireland came out with the big win of the night, but everyone was a winner at heart. I have attached some pictures, so you can enjoy our team spirit as much as the team did!

After the fun of the hydro games, it was time to ring in the season with a win! Going into the game Friday, we knew what needed to be done. Win! The game started, and we had no problem kicking off with a bang. In the 11th minute, Lolo started the scoring, then Haley Johnson found the net herself shortly after, and finally a goal by Kelli Swenson to end the scoring for the night. A great 3-0 start to our season!

The following week, we took on Eastern Illinois, and to no surprise your panthers were back at it winning! Another 3-0 win with goals by Erin, McKaela, and Chandler! With two wins, the team was ready to take on crosstown rival Marquette, but the weather had other plans. After two hours waiting in the locker room listening to the musical stylings of Gaby Z, playing hang man, and battling in many games of ninja, both teams agreed to reschedule the game for September 17th.

We moved forward and started to focus on our next battles ahead. Another two-game weekend at home was in front of us with Robert Morris on Friday and DePaul on Sunday. After a week of tough practices, the team came out to win again this weekend! Friday, the beautiful goal scored by McKenna off the cross from Schill gave us the edge to a 1-0 win, and it pumped the team to come into Sunday with an attitude to win again. As Sunday approached, your Lanthers were on the prowl for a win not only to put up more points, but an opportunity to tie the Horizon League’s all-time win streak (23-0-1).

From the kick off, we knew it was going to be our most challenging game yet. DePaul put up a good fight in the first half ending with no score, but this would not last long because in the 50th minute Haley Johnson put us on the board with a header off of Erin’s corner. This did not stop DePaul who came back and tied it up five minutes later, but your girls dug deep and Schill found the net again with less than 20 minutes left in the game. We were able to hold off the Blue Demons to come out with another winning result which allowed us to tie the Horizon League’s win streak of a record of 20-0-4.

This weekend we look ahead to extend our streak as we hit the road to Western Illinois and Iowa State! Come back next week to see how your Lanthers played and what crazy shenanigans happened on our first road trip of the year!!

See you all next week for another shot … with Petrone!

Nights Under the Lights: Entry No. 4

Hey fellow Panthers, and welcome to entry four of “Nights Under the Lights,” where things have really started falling into place as we go into the final part of the season. We have found a bit of a rhythm on both the offensive and defensive sides to our game, which has definitely come through perseverance, hard work, and repetition on the training pitch. With five Horizon League victories on the trot, we can really start to look forward to the excitement of post-season coming up the first week of November!

Anyways, after a fantastic win away to Cleveland State, we had the next week to prepare for first-place challenging Wright State at Engelmann on the upcoming Saturday. It was a good week of preparation and despite the weather conditions, everyone was raring to go against a top side in our conference. After a hard fought first half, we went into the locker room one nil down, but we had looked confident and still had high hopes of coming away with a result. We took the beginning of the second half by the scruff of the neck and got our reward through Evan Conway who tied it up at one apiece. Against the run of play Wright State regained the lead, but not for long before Jaime Colin put the ball into the back of the goal off a low cross from captain Jason Svensson. At the end of 90 minutes it was knotted at two goals each, but we all knew we deserved three points. With that belief, came a sudden death goal from Evan Conway just under five minutes into overtime! It was potentially our biggest win of the season, and teams around the league were really starting to take notice of our recent results and performances.

That game gave us even more confidence leading up to our next Horizon League game in ‘Motor City’ against the University of Detroit Titans. We had another full week to recover and prepare for the trip to Detroit, which was another crucial match where we expected nothing less than three points. Arriving to the match, most of us knew the atmosphere wasn’t going to be great so we were determined to make something out of nothing and create a positive environment for ourselves. We took control of the match from the start, and despite a defensive error and going down a goal fairly early, we continued to create lots of chances and looked very dangerous. Nick Moon scored our lone goal of the half, and we went into half time wanting even more. Reid Stevenson found himself in the right place at the right time to find our game winner, and Evan Conway found himself on the score sheet yet again. A convincing away win against a very tough opposition who looked to get the ball in the air as much as possible, it was a very positive ride home back to MKE.

After two full weeks of preparing for the past two matches, we had a quick turn around against in-state rivals Wisconsin-Madison. Madison is a top side amongst division one this season, and were making a name for themselves amongst the top schools with some good results and resounding performances. However, we knew we were in a very good place with some great performances on our backs, and we were all eager to test ourselves against some of the best around the nation. The air was brisk, and it felt like a true late October night, and the game started off a bit slow where each team assessed the other out. The match picked up in the second half, and chances occurred at each end, with Freddy Lorenzen coming up with two spectacular saves. Big time keepers come up in big time games when the team isn’t playing at the top of their game, and Freddy made sure to give us the best chance possible to carve something out of this one. The match ended nil-nil through overtime, but we showed resilience and proved we weren’t going to be merely pushed aside like many may have thought prior to the match up.

Our attention turned back to conference play, where we’d slowly moved our way up the rankings and were fighting for a top spot. IUPUI were up next at home, and they’d struggled throughout the season to pick up results, but we knew they’d be playing without any pressure and we were ready for the fight. Another brisk night at Engelmann, where we honored our four seniors Magnus Flaatedal, Nick Moon, Reid Stevenson, and Jonathan Stadler, who are big time leaders for our group in different ways and have shown that from the beginning of my career at UWM and throughout this season. We took control of this one from the very beginning, and both Jaime Colin and Evan Conway found the goal yet again early on in the match, and our dominance continued. Jake Kelderman opened up his account for the season after getting on the end of a Vuk Latinovich set piece, and from there it was a comfortable win that could have ended with plenty more goals for us.

Now, we look forward to our final match of the season in Michigan against the Oakland Grizzlies, who are fighting for postseason action as we fight for a top seed in hope of potentially hosting the conference tournament. Things are looking more positive than they have all season long, and we want to do our best to extend our season for as long as possible! Thanks for tuning in yet again, and hopefully there’s a lot more to celebrate come my next entry!

-Frankie

Nights Under the Lights: Entry No. 3

Hello again Panther fans, and welcome to the third entry of ‘Nights Under the Lights!”

We’ve seen a couple trophies, some competitive matches, and emotions flying all around us on and off the pitch, so there’s a lot to cover in this week’s entry! As I mentioned in my prior post, the season continues to fly by day-by-day and we can hardly catch our breath as we enter the final third, and possibly the most important part of our season. Our team has continued to grow and improve over the course of this season and we’ve definitely had several learning experiences together as a group, which have enabled us to look nothing but forward for the challenges ahead.

Picking up from last time where we came across a tough Belmont side, we took a couple days away from the field to reflect and we came back onto the pitch hungrier than ever. Northern Illinois was our next opponent, which included the second of three trophies on the line we’d fight for this season, the LeWang Trophy. We took the short bus ride down to Northern Illinois and we were eager to earn the trophy back after falling to them at home last year in the dying seconds. The game had a rather slow start as each team assessed one another, until Jaime Colin picked up the ball from about 30 yards out and picked out the top right hand corner! 1-0 up, and from there we established our dominance and fought for our lives. It was a very well-earned victory and a nice bus ride home with the LeWang trophy strapped in alongside captain Sean Reynolds.

We used that victory to fuel us going into another conference game against UIC at home on the upcoming Saturday. UIC knocked us out of the Horizon League Semifinal last season and both teams needed conference results, so it was set up for a high-paced and intense match. We came out of the blocks slow, and gave up two early goals, which made things very tough from the start. We earned one back from a Latinovich penalty but couldn’t find the net again and the match ended 2-1, which was somewhat disheartening from such a great performance a few days before. But as many teams will figure out during soccer season, you can’t dwell on the past and we immediately turned our focus to the exciting Milwaukee Cup against Marquette at Engelmann in three days time.

Since my freshmen year we had never won against Marquette, fall or spring, and no player on our current team had won the Milwaukee Cup during any fall season, so you can probably imagine how revved up our team was. Both coaches and players had an unbelievable amount of energy leading up to the match, and it showed when the match kicked off. We took off and pressed Marquette from minute one till the clock hit 90, nothing stopped us, and I’m sure our sophomore striker Evan Conway will tell you he hadn’t, nor will ever again, run that much in a match. Both seniors Reid Stevenson and Nick Moon scored, which made things that much sweeter for them to lift that trophy in front of our own fans at the end of the match.

We turned our attention back to conference, and while we left that result against Marquette in the past, we still had some of the juices running and wanted to keep that ball-rolling heading into the Northern Kentucky match up. We knew we had struggled in conference play, but we also knew one win could quickly turn things around and that’s what we did against Northern Kentucky. Another fantastic performance that lead to yet another 2-0 win, where we worked extremely hard, created a few good chances, which were taken by Evan Conway and Henrik Fennefoss, and things were looking up and there was a great vibe in the locker room after two well-earned victories.

Our attention quickly turned again to SIUE who we’d seen a couple times in my Panther career, but never in regular season play. They were always a competitive team that played good soccer, but we were on a high and felt we could take advantage of that. Unfortunately things didn’t go our way, and we came away with a 2-0 loss, which reflected our play. It was a rather unexpected performance, where energy lacked and the quality wasn’t quite there from us, perhaps so many games in a short amount of time. Either way, we weren’t making excuses because we knew the other team was in the same situation, so we took the match on the chin and had another quick turn around.

Cleveland State was up next, who had some positive results in conference play and were looking confident in securing an early playoff spot. We had spoiled their playoff hopes last year in the final match of the season with a last-minute goal, and our team wanted to come out and remind them of that result from last season. There was a sense that we were going to be an easy match for them, but we were determined to prove them we weren’t there for the taking. The first half ended a stalemate with limited chances on each end, but 15 minutes into the second half Nick Moon found himself bursting past his defender and slotting the ball in far post. Along with that, I was lucky enough to find myself on the score sheet with my first goal of the season, which gave us a 2-0 lead that we held onto till the end of the match! A confident display from us, and we feel as though we’re picking up some steam and getting hot at the perfect time. We’re still right in the mix of things regarding conference play and play off spots, so we will continue to fight every day and work for what we feel we deserve! Thanks for tuning in, a rather long entry this week but nonetheless we appreciate you keeping up with us!

-Frankie

The Lanther Diaries: Entry No. 2

Hello lanther fans!!

A lot has happened since our last blog post. We apologize for the delay as we have been busy with the start of our semesters. We have played 8 games since our last post, resulting in 8 wins and 7 shutouts. On top of that, quite a few records have been broken. With the 7 shutouts, our flawless goalkeeper Mallory Geurts and backline broke the Milwaukee program record for longest scoreless streak (917:27 minutes). That’s 15 hours of playing without letting in a single goal. Wow. This streak is 9th ranked for the NCAA scoreless streak record. On top of that, Mal Geurts has become NCAA’s current leading goalkeeper with the most amount of shutouts (9!!). She has earned four Horizon League Defensive Player of the Weeks, so basically she’s been absolutely killing it!! Finally on an individual note, Aubrey Krahn, Anna Smalley, and Lolo Onwuemeka have all earned Horizon League Offensive Player of the Weeks!!

As a team, we have earned the sixth spot in the region, and have received nine votes for the NCAA national poll. Our record of 9-0-1 breaks the MKE program record for most unbeaten games to start the season. Finally, our latest 2-1 win over Marquette (ranked #19 at the time) was Milwaukee’s first time in 11 years to defeat a nationally-ranked opponent.

Well, with all of those recognitions aside, we have had such a fun start to the season off the field also. In August, we had our 2nd annual “Lanther Hydrolympics”!! We split up into six teams (Germany, USA, Brazil, Italy, Spain, and England), dress up and play each other in different games ... to help us get hydrated. Germany came out on top for the second year in a row (Italy won best spirit by dressing up).

Finally, our loving tradition of playing 5v2 before practice remains strong, even though Kelli Swenson manages to get hit in the face in some way almost every time we play (majority of the times Brooke Polonus is the culprit).

We hope you guys come to our last eight regular season games!! We have all conference games left, so issa bout to go downnnnnn. Our next home game is on September 27th against Green Bay.

****SPECIAL COOL NEVER BEFORE DONE ANNOUNCEMENT**** There will be a DIAMOND ring placed somewhere on Engelmann field after the game (Special shoutout to Kloiber Jewelers). Mind. Blown. Folks, this means if you simply attend our game, you have a chance of winning some fine jewelry (hint hint to all the guys out there- you never know when you’ll need it in the future). So, be there or be ... diamondless.

XOXO, Your Senior Lanths

Nights Under the Lights: Entry No. 2

Hello and welcome back Panther fans, to this week’s edition of “Nights Under the Lights!”

This first month and a bit has flown right by, and as I mentioned in the last write-up the team continues to work, battle and stay hungry for positive performances and results. The vibe around the dressing room is a positive one and our group continues to grow and learn about one another on and off the pitch.

Picking up from last time, our team hopped on the bus and made the long trip to Evansville, Indiana, for a couple of matches against hosts Evansville University on Friday, and University of Bradley from Illinois on Sunday.

Evansville is a good team with lots of international players who had some great experience, along with a preseason All-American midfielder, but none of that mattered to us come game time. We went down two-nil and we were fighting some adversity from fans and the referee, but we had no doubt in ourselves. Senior Magnus Flaatedal opened his account for the season with a composed finished from the penalty spot, and in the final moments sophomore Evan Conway scored to tie the game. Overtime proved to be a back and forth encounter with chances at both ends, but unfortunately we conceded and came away without a point, which didn’t properly reflect great resilience and a convincing performance.

We brought those positives to Sunday’s match versus Bradley, a team known for their athleticism, set pieces and long throw-ins, and seeing the ball in the air a lot. It was a hot afternoon, but come the second half, you could tell our good possession play started to take its toll on the opposition’s legs. 80 minutes in, it stayed even at 0-0, but finally Evan Conway found himself on the end of a cross to score his second of the season and see us take the lead! Along with that, senior Nick Moon also opened his account after taking on three players convincingly from half way and confidently slotting the ball into the goal to round off a proper performance and a great result for the team. A good three points, along with some bad music selections from Jaime Colin on the bus ride home, we were already looking forward to next weekend’s home match versus in-state rivals Green Bay for the Chancellors Cup.

We had a full week to prepare for the match, which always stirred up emotions from past matches between the two sets of teams. Saturday came and it was a beautiful night, where we were physically and mentally ready to fight in front of a great crowd at Engelmann stadium. The match took little time to get going and both teams saw chances go astray, but neither was willing to make a mistake that would cost a result. Green Bay scored, and the crowd came to a hush as the team looked to regroup and find a second of magic to tie up the match. Again, never count out this team, because come the final 10 seconds senior defender Jonathan Stadler found himself burying the ball into the goal off a corner kick; both the stands and our bench erupt in celebration and we found ourselves in another overtime match. Unfortunately the celebrations were cut short, after Green Bay found a goal a few minutes into overtime to snag the Chancellors Cup from right under our noses. It had a complete sour taste in all our mouths and although we as a team were very disappointed in the result, it fueled us for our next home game against UMKC in three days time.

Both teams surprisingly came out flying out of the gates the start of Tuesday’s game, considering it was an out-of-conference match up. We took first blood from a brilliant finish from senior striker Reid Stevenson, which saw him run over and celebrate with his sister on the sideline. He always said he was a lover, not a fighter. UMKC continued to look to move the ball and keep possession, and they were able to tie the game up and even score a second to make the match 2-1. Luckily though, junior defender sergeant Svensson scored a header off a Latinovich free kick in the final few minutes, and here we were in yet another overtime situation. Both teams looked to play and keep possession, looking to break lines and play good football, which made for a great match up all game. Overtime ran out and we came out with a point against a good team that had only conceded one goal all season before meeting us.

This past weekend we made the long and tedious journey to Belmont University in Tennessee, but we were looking forward to Horizon League play once again and wanted to make an impact. It was hot and humid down in Nashville at midday, and 11 hours on the bus over the course of two days didn’t help our legs, but we were determined to fight for a result. Unfortunately, things didn’t go our way, and we ended up losing to Belmont 2-1. Again, another game we saw slip by at our finger tips.

A record of 2-3-2 after the first third of the season, which continues to fly by day by day, isn’t a terrible place to be in. Each game we felt we outplayed the opposition, had more shots and had the better chances, and now it’s just finding a way to get back to the basics and find a way to put the ball in the goal. We’ll regroup, and look forward to the LeWang Trophy against Northern Illinois this upcoming Wednesday!

Thanks for tuning in once again!

-Frankie