Nov. 1, 2002

Box Score

MILWAUKEE - The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's soccer team sure picked the right time of the season to crank up the offense. One game after peppering UW-Green Bay with 25 shots in a victory, the Panthers cranked out 26 more attempts, 15 of which were on goal, in a 4-1 defeat of Valparaiso University here Friday (Nov. 1). UWM has now gone six straight games without a loss to improve to 9-5-5 on the year while Valpo fell to 5-11-1 on the season.

"Valparaiso is a solid team who is second in their conference and they beat Oakland, a team we lost to," UWM head coach Michael Moynihan said. "So to win like this is nice. We really had a great attack tonight and an aggressive attitude. I was really pleased with our overall effort. We were flying around all over the place and really attacking the net. That's good to see."

Milwaukee jumped on the Crusaders early as Elizabeth Chudy dented the scoreboard less than four minutes into the match. The freshman scored her team-leading seventh goal of the year at the 3:57 mark when she collected an errant VU pass and buried it into the back of the net. The Panthers continued to attack on offense, but couldn't find the net again the remainder of the frame as the two squads went into the lockerroom with a 1-0 score.

On a cold, windy night at Uihlein Field, the two teams turned up the heat in the second half and scored a total of four goals in less than an eight-minute span. UWM took a 2-0 lead at the 62:02 mark when Maria Iaizzo beat Valpo's goalkeeper to the far post on a one-on-one break. Iaizzo's goal was set up by assists from Chudy and Lisa Bengtsson. Then, just 3:02 later, Katie Kubacki made it 3-0 Panthers when she headed home a cross from fellow senior Maggie Suminski. The goal was the second of the season for "Kubi" while Suminksi notched her team-best seventh assist.

Valparaiso took its turn in the scoring barrage at 67:39 when Kristi Dixon scored on a rebound off of UWM goalkeeper Molly Schneider. The Crusader momentum was shortlived, however, as the crafty Iaizzo struck again less than three minutes later. The freshman scored her second goal of the night and third of the season when she finished a flurry of attempts at the 70:57 mark. Andrea Kramer started the sequence as her long shot hit the cross bar. Sophomore Amber Jelinek then one-timed a pass to Iaizzo who tucked the ball in the corner of the net for the final margin.

"We are starting to show some maturity and understanding our gameplan each night out," added Moynihan. "We wanted to feel good about playing out here under the lights with the conference tournament coming up and I think we did that. We have a good feel for our strategy going into the postseason."

Milwaukee will enter the aforementioned Horizon League Tournament as hosts and the No. 1 overall seed. The Panthers will receive a quarterfinal bye on Thursday and will meet the winner of the #4 Loyola and #5 Wright State contest Friday (Nov. 8) at 7:30 p.m. The quarterfinals and semifinals of the tournament will be held at Uihlein Field with the championship game set for noon on Sunday (Nov. 10) at Engelmann Field.