MILWAUKEE – The Milwaukee women's soccer team came out on the front foot and never let up in claiming an impressive 4-0 victory over Green Bay in the regular-season finale Wednesday night at Engelmann Stadium.
 
The Panthers (10-2-5, 7-0-3 Horizon League) scored just 2:32 into the match against the Phoenix (0-11-5, 0-7-3 Horizon League) and then kept piling on, getting a pair of goals and an assist from Lainey Higgins as the team dominated the stat sheet and won for the seventh straight time in the series, as well as the defense blanking GB for the eighth consecutive meeting.
 
The team finishes the regular season with an unbeaten 7-0-3 conference ledger, the fourth time in the past six years the team has not lost a regular-season league matchup – a stretch that has seen them post a stellar 49-2-5 (a .920 winning percentage) mark.
 
"Great game to end the season on – what a tribute to the team to have an undefeated conference record," head coach Kevin Boyd said. "We went through a couple of challenging moments in that schedule, so to finish up strong like this is what we wanted. I just loved the team energy today – the positive vibe they had, the commitment towards one another."
 
The MKE offense came out hot, posting three shots in the first 2:32, with the third finding the back of the net courtesy of a Kristina Karlof header. She netted her second goal of the season, playing the ricochet of Brooke Parnello's shot off the left post perfectly past the goalie for the early 1-0 lead.
 
"We wanted to really be on the front foot from the opening whistle and I felt like we were and we got a goal right away," Boyd said. "At halftime, I told the team 'you earned so much' and I talked to the starters and told them I really wanted to get a lot of people in and that they needed to take care of business. And they scored 30 seconds into the second half and that allowed us to start subbing multiple people in. A lot of our players deserve the playing time, they need to, and I love that they got it on the last day."
 
The offense kept humming, firing off shot after shot while forcing some tough stops along the way. A dozen shots later the lead was doubled, seeing Higgins net her first of the night when she blasted in a defensive clearance off a corner kick in from Elizabeth Reece.
 
The team took that 2-0 lead into the locker room along with a 17-2 advantage in shots. It didn't take long to make it a bigger advantage, scoring just 27 seconds into the second half when Kat Van Booven finished a perfect thru ball from Higgins with a sliding effort to net her sixth goal of the season at the 45:27 mark.
 
Higgins then closed out the scoring in the offense-heavy display, booting in a give-and-go from Karlof for her second of the game – and sixth of the season – at the 53:28 mark.
 
The team dominated both sides of the ball, finishing with advantages of 34-6 in shots, 14-2 in shots on goal, 14-0 in corner kicks, as well as 65 percent of possession overall. Parnello actually led the way with a career-high seven shots from her spot in the back, with Van Booven adding five. In addition to Higgins' five-point night (2G/1A), Karlof had a career-best three points (1G/1A).
 
"I mean, 34 shots, 14 corners … that tells you how attacking we were the whole time," Boyd said. "And credit to Green Bay – they never quit. They have played teams really tight recently even though their record may not have been the best. Credit to them for their development throughout the season but really good for us to come out and play like this on the last day."
 
In all, 25 different Panthers saw the field, with 12 reserves playing 11-plus minutes and six of them recording shot attempts.
 
"We want to continue to sharpen up, get some people some rest that need it," Boyd said about the upcoming eight-day break. "At the end of it, we brought everybody off the field so it was really good for the whole squad and the way they played – including everyone that came in … we still looked like us the entire 90 minutes."
 
In net, Kendall Edwards made a pair of saves in her 60:40 of action, while Parker Donahugh wrapped up the team's eighth shutout of the campaign with a scoreless 29:20.
 
Up next, the team will enjoy the bye in the first round before hosting the semifinals and finals for the Horizon League Tournament next week. Action gets underway Thursday as the team will play in the 1 p.m. game, taking on the lowest-remaining seed following first-round action. All match-up info will be posted to the MKE website when available and tickets are already available for purchase at this LINK.