The Milwaukee women's soccer team will host semifinal Horizon League Tournament action next, welcoming IUPUI to Engelmann Stadium Sunday. The team begins its quest for its 13th Horizon League Tournament Championship and 14th NCAA Tournament appearance in program history against the Jaguars, scheduled for a 1 p.m. start.

As the No. 2 seed, the Panthers battle third-seeded IUPUI, the only team to give MKE a blemish on a 7-1 regular-season record. Sunday's other game pits #1 Northern Kentucky hosting #4 UIC. See page 10 of this release for the complete bracket of the tournament. Sunday's affair will have an ESPN+ stream with Matt Menzl on the call, as well as live statistics. Check out the Milwaukee website for all links.

Milwaukee is now 3-1-1 all-time against IUPUI, with all games coming since the Jags joined the Horizon League. All four contests prior to that 1-0 loss earlier this spring (March 3) had been shutouts by the MKE defense, with the Panthers now holding a 10-1 goal differential in the all-time series.

The 2020-21 campaign, which was postponed from the fall to this spring, saw a shortened version seeing the Panthers play 10 Horizon League matches. MKE was the five-time defending Horizon League champion coming into the season and had its conference record 36-game unbeaten streak (33-0-3) in regular-season league play snapped earlier this spring, a streak which was the second-longest such streak in the country.

TOURNAMENT PRIDE
The Panthers have a long history of success in the Horizon League Tournament and have posted an impressive 36-8-9 record all-time in the event, including 17-4-3 in semifinal action. In addition, a member of the Panther roster has been named league tournament MVP in eight of the past 12 years. The team is in search of its 14th all-time appearance in the NCAA Tournament, having made it each of the last two seasons after a stretch without a visit since the 2013 campaign (which also marked the end of a streak of six trips in a row).

ATTENDANCE POLICY UPDATE
Starting March 3, Panther home outdoor games at Engelmann Stadium will be allowed a limited number of spectators. Due to the limited capacity requirements, only family and friends of the competing teams' student-athletes and coaching staffs via the teams pass lists, as well as a limited number of UWM students, will be allowed to attend the game in person. Tickets are not available for the general public to purchase.

POSTSEASON SIX-PACK OF PANTHERS
Milwaukee landed six different players with postseason honors, highlighted by Rachel Phillpotts and Jelena Sever earning First-Team All-Horizon League honors.

Earning second-team status was Mackenzie Schill, Taylor Hattori, and Elaina LaMacchia, with newcomer Clara Broecker picking up a spot on the Horizon League All-Freshman Team.

A BRACE OF BRACES
Milwaukee put together quite the offensive outburst against Green Bay March 30, with the 6-0 victory marking the most goals for the team since a similar 6-0 shutout of IUPUI back on October 18, 2017. Both Maggy Henschler and Natalie Auble netted two goals apiece, the first time a pair of teammates recorded a brace since that same game against IUPUI, when both Lourdes Onwuemeka and McKaela Schmelzer scored twice. For Henschler, not only was it a career-best effort, but also marked the first time an MKE defender scored twice since Cassidy Blanchard had both goals in a 2-0 win over Cleveland State back on October 27, 2017.

POTT A PAIR
Senior Rachel Phillpotts earned Horizon League Offensive Player of the Week honors March 19 after recording the first brace of her MKE career. Phillpotts helped lead Milwaukee to a 3-0 victory over Detroit Mercy March 17, scoring that pair of goals. Her first came on a header off a corner kick and made it 2-0. She finished off the game in the 69th minute, slamming home a header off a free kick to make it 3-0.

JUNIOR SWEEP
A pair of classmates were honored March 12 when Jelena Sever and Elaina LaMacchia swept the Horizon League Player of the Week awards. The honor is the third of Sever's career and the sixth for LaMacchia. Sever scored a pair of goals to lead Milwaukee to a 2-1 victory over Cleveland State March 10. She netted a pretty free kick in the first half to put MKE up 1-0. Then, after the Vikings tied the game on a PK early in the second, put the Panthers back ahead with a header off a long free kick for the winner in the 69th minute. LaMacchia came up big in net in the victory, recording four saves to secure the one-goal decision. The only goal she allowed came on a 54th-minute penalty kick.

The duo did it again April 7, sweeping the final awards of the regular season after Sever netted the OT game-winning PK and LaMacchia posted a four-save shutout against Oakland. For LaMacchia, it closed out a stellar regular season in which she topped the Horizon League with her 0.27 goals-against average (which ranks seventh in the NCAA) and .923 save percentage (ranking 10th in the NCAA).

THE BEAT WENT ON FOR A LONG TIME
The Panthers ran into something they hadn't seen in a long time March 3 when they faced IUPUI ... a regular-season Horizon League loss. In fact, to put it in perspective, it had been 1,617 days since that last occurred, a 2-1 defeat in overtime to Valparaiso on Sept. 28, 2016. More impressively, just one player - redshirt senior Gaby Schwartz - was even on the roster at that point in time. Every other MKE player on the field was still unbeaten in their league careers up until that game against the Jaguars. That brings that epic streak to an end at 36 games, with the unbeaten streak in regular-season league play easily the best in Horizon League history (33-0-3). It also snapped Milwaukee's winning streak in home games during regular-season play at 31 (29-0-2), dating back to a 1-0 loss to Iowa State in overtime on Sept. 11, 2016. Both streaks were the second-longest of their kind in the nation. Team streak only adds to its recent resume, joining the list with its overall unbeaten streak (at a Horizon League and school-record total of 27 [23-0-4]) that came to an end in the early portion of the 2018 campaign.

GETTING IN ON THE FUN
Not only did Elaina LaMacchia record her 19th career shutout against Wright State Feb. 24, but she did something no MKE goalkeeper had done in nearly 15 years. She recorded the first assist for a Milwaukee keeper since Erin Kane in 2006 late in the match, when her goal kick was flicked downfield by a header from Haley Steel. The pass created a one-on-one opportunity for Natalie Auble, who netted her second goal of the season to cap the scoring at the 79:30 mark.

AUBLE WAS ABLE
Natalie Auble enjoyed a breakthrough season as a sophomore in 2019, setting career-highs across the board in points, goals, assists, and shots. But one thing she didn't record was a game-winning goal. That all changed against Purdue Fort Wayne Feb. 10, netting the only goal in MKE's 1-0 victory over the Mastodons in the 10th minute.

A THRILL FOR SCHILL
Mackenzie Schill was named the Horizon League Offensive Player of the Week, for the second time in her career, following her two-goal effort against Robert Morris Feb. 3. Schill got the Panthers started off on the right foot against RMU, notching her first goal of the season just 6:19 into the campaign to jumpstart what was a run of four goals in the first 18:22 for Milwaukee. She also scored again to make it 3-0 on the way to the 5-1 win. Schill ended the afternoon with a team-high five shots, including four on goal. It's the first multi-goal effort in an MKE season opener since Sarah Hagen scored twice in the 3-2 victory over Michigan State to open the 2011 campaign.

SEEING TRIPLE
Milwaukee put the foot on the gas pedal against RMU Feb. 3, scoring four goals in the first 18:22 of the day, including a trio in a span of just 2:00 on the clock. It marked the second-fastest span for three goals in program history. Below is the former list of the top two.

16:22 Taylor Hattori
17:38 Mackenzie Schill
18:22 Haley Johnson

9/19/93 against Valparaiso (2:11 span on the clock)
50:37 Betsy Ribares
51:10 Meredith Ammons
52:48 Meredith Ammons

9/18/97 against WIU (1:37 span on the clock)
64:20 Cammy Polson
65:24 Lindsey Munkwitz
65:57 Katie Waltenberger

FOR OPENERS
The Panthers improved to 14-14-3 all-time in season openers (9-11-2 in season openers on the road) following their 5-1 victory over Robert Morris this year. That improved the squad to 5-2-2 in the past nine season openers, with Troy Fabiano improving to an unbeaten 5-0-1 in his six years at the helm. In addition, the Panthers moved to 17-11-2 in home openers following their 3-1 win over Northern Illinois Aug. 25. A season ago, MKE opened the campaign with a 3-0 victory over NIU at home.

NOT TOO SHABBY
When it comes to Horizon League openers, the record is quite impressive all-time. Milwaukee has gone 24-2-1 in opening action (since joining the league in 1994), with a string of 14 wins in a row from 1998 through 2011. The squad has victories in each of the past eight as well, following the win over RMU.

The Panthers have had a very long line of success when it comes to Horizon League play, claiming the regular-season title in each of the past five seasons as well as 19 of the past 20 titles overall. In fact, under the watch of Troy Fabiano, the team posted a sparkling 40-1-4 ledger over the past five campaigns (coming into 2020-21) in regular-season conference play.

PRESEASON POLL
Horizon League champions for a fifth season in a row after claiming a 19th regular-season title in the past 20 years in the fall of 2019, the Milwaukee women's soccer team was picked by league coaches to again take first in the Horizon League regular season. The Panthers tallied 10 first-place votes and 132 points in the coaches' poll to claim the No. 1 spot.

2020-21 PRESEASON POLL
1. Milwaukee – 132 (10)
2. IUPUI – 118
3. UIC – 112 (1)
4. Northern Kentucky – 108
5. Oakland – 105 (1)
6. Wright State – 91
7. Cleveland State – 79
8. Youngstown State – 51
9. Purdue Fort Wayne – 38
10. Green Bay – 37
11. RMU – 35
12. Detroit Mercy – 30

KEEP COUNTING
The Panthers had eight different players earn postseason honors last season. Highlighting the way was McKaela Schmelzer as the Defensive Player of the Year and Troy Fabiano being named the Horizon League Coach of the Year for the fifth year in a row. Schmelzer was joined the on the First-Team All-Horizon League by Gaby Schwartz, Rachel Phillpotts, Haley Johnson and Taylor Hattori. Two players were named to the Second-Team All-League, with Mackenzie Schill and Rafferty Kugler representing the Panthers on the squad. Maggy Henschler rounded out the big award haul with a spot on the Horizon League All-Freshman Team.

SETTING THE BAR
Troy Fabiano became the first-ever Horizon League field boss to be named Coach of the Year five times in a row (Notre Dame's Chris Petricelli was the only other to reach four straight from 1991 to 1994). Fabiano helped his team to its fifth straight Horizon League regular-season crown and has now gone 40-1-4 in his five seasons in conference – as well as an unbeaten 24-0-3 the past three campaigns. Not only that, but his 73 victories are easily the most wins over the first five years of any coach in program history. The total easily outdistances the 60 recorded by Michael Moynihan over the course of his first five.

JUST WIN BABY
The Panthers closed the 2019 campaign on an impressive streak, posting 15 consecutive games without a loss prior to the NCAA Tournament (the 14-0-1 marked the second-best unbeaten stretch in program history) - with eight of the final nine decisions in that span via the shutout. The team also recorded 11 straight wins for just the second time in program history against IUPUI Oct. 23. The school record of 11 consecutive victories was accomplished in 2006 when the team finished 16-4-2. In addition to 2019, Milwaukee also won 10 in a row in the 2009 and 2017 campaigns.

IS THIS GOOD? ... ASKING FOR A FRIEND
Let's be honest, the Panthers have been very good since the start of the 2017 campaign. How good? Well, at 49-4-6 (.881), they actually had the second-best winning percentage in the nation over that span heading into 2020-21. The only one higher is 2019 & 2017 NCAA National Champion Stanford, who has a 69-3-2 (.946) ledger over the same time frame. No. 3 on that list is North Carolina (62-9-5/.849), with UCLA (54-11-6/.803), Georgetown (48-9-10/.791), and Duke (48-10-10/.779) making up the rest of the top six.

WE MUST PROTECT THIS HOUSE!!
Milwaukee went 5-1-4 at home in Troy Fabiano's first season back in 2015. Since then, the Panthers have posted an impressive 36-4-4 ledger at Engelmann Stadium (an .864 winning percentage), with a perfect 11-0 run through home outings in the fall of 2019.

NUMBERS DON'T LIE FOR LA"BLOCK"IA
Elaina LaMacchia put together quite the sophomore campaign. She made 15 starts in 16 appearances in the fall of 2019, posting a 0.33 goals-against average, 54 saves and a .915 save percentage. She recorded nine solo shutouts and was part of two others, going 13-1-1 overall on the season, including 8-0-1 in league play.

LaMacchia finished first in the Horizon League in GAA and save percentage and was second in total shutouts and first in shutouts-per-game (0.56). She ranked second in the NCAA in save percentage and sixth in goals-against average, while her GAA ended up second on the program's all-time season record list (record is 0.29 GAA), tied for sixth in shutouts and tied for seventh with 13 victories. She was named Horizon League Defensive Player of the Week on three occasions (Sept. 16/Oct. 7/Oct. 28), running two-year career total to five awards. In posting 10 consecutive scoreless outings (Sept. 12 to Nov. 1), she ran her school and league-record consecutive-scoreless minutes streak to 1,070:12, which also goes down as the sixth-longest of its kind in NCAA Division I history.

OFFENSIVE DEFENSE
Back-line defender Gaby Schwartz enjoyed a breakout 2019 campaign on the offensive side of the ball, finishing in fifth place in the Horizon League with 21 points (6G/9A), while her assists total led the conference and finished in the top 30 in the nation. It's easily a career-high for Schwartz, topping the six points (all on assists) that she recorded over her first two years with the Panthers. She was named the Horizon League "Offensive" Player of the Week Sept. 9, following a stretch where she netted back-to-back game-winners against Eastern Illinois and Butler, as well as three assists on the other six MKE goals in the pair of outings. Not only is the award is the first of Schwartz's career, it is also the first time an MKE defender has claimed the offensive side of the award since Amy Kauffung in August of 2012.

SETTING THE TONE
Milwaukee continued its recent trend of picking up wins after getting on the board first. The Panthers went a perfect 16-0 when finding the back of the net first in 2018, which included a 9-0 mark when leading at halftime. That now improves the squad to 51-0 the past three-plus seasons after getting the first goal of a game after a 17-0 ledger in 2019. They are also 45-0-4 when outshooting their opponent in that same span, getting outshot just 12 times over the three-plus year stretch.

FIRING ON ALL CYLINDERS
The Panthers were back at it, topping the Horizon League in all team categories on the offensive side of the ball. The team paced the conference in points with 152 (second was 89), goals at 47 (32) and assists at 58 (second was 35). In fact, the scoring offense of 2.47 goals-per-game ranked 14th in the nation, its total goals finished 18th, and points-per-game (7.6) was ninth, while the 58 assists finished sixth at the NCAA DI level. Milwaukee's 0.49 goals-against average once again paced the conference as well - in addition to placing 12th in the NCAA - with a team save percentage (.888) that ranked fifth.

THAT SOUNDS FAMILIAR
Milwaukee recorded 1-0 victories in three of its last five contests to claim the Horizon League crown in 2018. That 1-0 scoreline has a familiar ring to it, as the team has been simply amazing in games featuring that final score recently. Since Troy Fabiano stepped on campus, the Panthers have played 27 games that ended 1-0 (either way). Their record? An impressive 21-6 in those pressure-packed outings.

WELCOME TO MILWAUKEE
As has been the case the past several seasons, there will once again be plenty of chances for newcomers to make an impression in 2021. A season ago, 13 of the 32 players on the roster were making their MKE debuts (10 true freshmen, a pair of redshirt freshmen and one transfer). This year, 16 of the 34 student-athletes will be appearing in a Panther uniform for the first time (9 true freshmen, six redshirt freshmen and one transfer).

THIS GUY IS FAB-ULOUS
Troy Fabiano was named the eighth head coach in program history in early 2015 and brought with him a very impressive resume. In his 17 years at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, Fabiano went 222-74-29, a winning percentage of over 75 percent. Fabiano guided Parkside to 16 consecutive winning seasons, eight NCAA Tournament appearances and five Great Lakes Valley Conference championships. He earned three GLVC Coach of the Year awards, and was named the Midwest Region Coach of the Year in 2008, 2010 and 2014. In his last season of 2014, the squad went 18-1-3 and earned a berth in the NCAA Sweet 16 before falling to the eventual national champion in overtime.

CATCH THEM IN ACTION
Milwaukee men's soccer will be available for the viewing pleasure of MKE fans this season, as all home games are scheduled to be streamed live on ESPN+ (subject to change due to weather and location). The Horizon League and ESPN have an agreement that includes ESPN hosting the league's digital network on the ESPN+ platform. ESPN+, which will host the Horizon League women's soccer, men's soccer and volleyball championships this season, offers fans thousands of live events, on-demand content and original programming not available on ESPN's linear TV or digital networks. Fans can subscribe to ESPN+ for just $5.99 a month (or $59.99 per year) and cancel at any time. Launched in April of 2018, ESPN+ is an integrated part of a completely redesigned ESPN App.

ON TAP
If the Panthers can advance through the semifinals, the team will play in the Horizon League Tournament Championship against the winner of the Northern Kentucky/UIC matchup April 17. Kick off will be 1 p.m. local time and the matchup would be at Engelmann if UIC knocks off the #1 seed.