MILWAUKEE – Two goals in the first seven minutes opened the floodgates as the Milwaukee women's soccer team blew out Robert Morris in Horizon League Tournament semifinals Thursday afternoon at Engelmann Stadium. A hat trick from Kayla Rollins highlighted the 7-0 victory, marking a season-high in goals scored for team with the output.
 
The Panthers (11-6-2) got scoring strikes from Rollins at the 5:21 mark and Lainey Higgins just 95 seconds later (6:56) to make a statement against the Colonials (6-7-6) and cruise from there. The lead grew to 3-0 in the 14^th and then to 4-0 in the 25^th minute. The MKE offense never took its foot off the gas, netting three more goals in the second half to cruise to the blowout victory.
 
"I thought the team was outstanding today," head coach Kevin Boyd said. "I thought we played some really good soccer. I couldn't be prouder of how we showed up. This was the objective today and that was the conversation we had at halftime. It's 4-0, it's still in play, how we would respond in the second half would determine our readiness come Saturday. We had a couple of things going on – No. 1 secure the win. No. 2, could we get ourselves in a position that we could rest some people and we did both."
 
Rollins recorded her second career hat trick and seventh multi-goal outing as a Panther, actually finding the back of the net for her third tally in the 70^th minute with a substitute waiting on the sidelines that was set to bring her off the field for the day.
 
It was all Milwaukee all afternoon, who got multi-point performances from Rollins (6 points on 3G), Kristina Karlof (4 on 1G/2A), Higgins (3 on 1G/1A), Jenni Andjelic (3 on 1G/1A), and Senya Meurer (2 on 2A).
 
"We feel like we have been playing really well," Boyd said. "My concern was a variety of things – one it being the semifinals and how our team would respond to that. And No. 2, last week's game at Green Bay was so weird [played over two days due to weather issues]. And I didn't know if there was going to be any remnants of that affecting us so the biggest concern was making sure we were fully ready to go when we started and clearly, we were."
 
The defense was just as good, allowing just one shot on goal prior to intermission. Parker Donahugh posted her ninth shutout of the season in net, finishing the afternoon with three saves. Lost in the offensive fireworks was a brilliant Donahugh stop in the 82^nd minute, going high to knock a well-struck attempt off the crossbar and out of play and preserve the clean sheet.
 
For the game, the MKE offense produced lopsided tallies of 25-9 in shots, 16-3 in shots on goal, and 4-0 in corner kicks, while also ending the afternoon with 63 percent of total possession. Rollins paced the team with five shots, while Higgins produced four. Rollins has now scored goals in six consecutive games to tie for the fifth-longest such streak in program history. In those half-dozen games, she has netted 10 goals and added a pair of assists.
 
The postseason victory extends MKE's unbeaten streak in Horizon League Tournament play to an impressive 16 in a row at 13-0-3, last dropping a conference postseason match in 2016. The win also kept the team perfect against RMU all-time at 9-0.
 
Up next, the team will hit the field to take on Northern Kentucky Saturday in search of a seventh consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament. Game time at Engelmann Stadium is set for 1 p.m. that afternoon. The Norse defeated Detroit Mercy, 1-0, in the late semifinal Thursday. The contest is a rematch from last season's title game, which Milwaukee won by a final score of 1-0 on a late PK from Brooke Parnello.