Oct. 26, 2003

Box Score

MILWAUKEE - While things may not have gone exactly as University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee head coach Michael Moynihan had hoped his squad was still able to clinch its fourth consecutive Horizon League title with a 1-0 defeat of Youngstown State University here Sunday (Oct. 26). UWM (8-7-1, 5-1-0), which will play two non-conference games next week, will earn the No. 1 seed and a first round bye in the league tournament beginning Nov. 6 in Chicago, Ill. With the loss, YSU falls to 1-14-0 on the year and 0-6-0 in league play.

"I don't think this is how we envisioned this game going but its still nice to win the game and win the league," Moynihan said. "This team has overcome a lot to win again this year. We lost a starting midfielder in Amber Jelinek and one of our top recruits, Amanda Winn, with torn ACL's. Then we lost Stacey Faude for the season, all while playing every game with a huge target on our back. Now we have a week to fine tune some things and prepare for the league championship."

Milwaukee controlled play for large portions of the game, creating numerous scoring chances in the first half. Midfielder Liz Chudy took five shots in the first 45 minutes alone, missing one just high with another banging off the cross bar. Erin Shaughnessy nearly put UWM on the board in the 23rd minute when she shot just wide on a 1 on 1 chance with the YSU goalkeeper. The Panthers outshot the Penguins 13-2 in the first half while recording six corner kicks to YSU's zero.

The bend-but-don't-break YSU defense remained stingy in the early portions of the second half, keeping UWM out of the net despite the ball remaining in the Panther half of the field hte majority of the time. However, the Panthers eventually broke through in the 75th minute after a YSU foul. Freshman Ginny Graczyk launched a long free kick from midfield towards the penalty box. Sommer Rouse touched it, where it then found Evann Franklin who fired a shot under the keeper's hands and into the back of the net. The goal was the third of the season for Franklin while the assist for Graczyk was her team-leading sixth. With her assist, Rouse scored her first point of the season.

After scoring the game-winner, the UWM defense held on to post its fifth shutout of the season. With the 8-7-1 overall record, Milwaukee is not above the .500 mark for the second time this season with two games two play.

"We talked about making a statement before the game but we didn't appear to carry that out on the field," Moynihan said. "Today we kind of fell back to some of the things we did early on this season. No one was willing to be the one to make a difference in the game. We could have been far more assertive in the offensive attack. We played that way Friday versus Iowa but didn't for some reason today. But, we did get a win and we won the league."

Milwaukee will finish the regular season with a pair of matches versus Big Ten Conference opponents. The Panthers will head west on I-94 for a Wednesday night (7:00 p.m.) showdown at the University of Wisconsin before hosting Northwestern University and Senior Day festivities on Sunday (Nov. 2). Sunday's game is set to begin at 12:00 p.m.