MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – Ashlyn Skinner-Barrett scored the only goal of the game and Bella Hollenbach made 10 saves in net to help the Milwaukee women's soccer team claim a thrilling 1-0 victory over Minnesota Friday night at Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium.
 
"This was a signature win for us," head coach Kevin Boyd said. "We knew this was our last chance to get what we thought should be a Top-50 win and the final Power 4 team that we played in the gauntlet of games that we just had. It was a really gutsy performance by our team."
 
The Panthers (2-4-1) hung in against the Golden Gophers (4-2-0) until late, with Skinner-Barret scoring in the 82^nd minute to help the team claim victory over a regionally-ranked opponent (No. 9 in this week's United Soccer Coaches North Region poll) that was ranked in the national preseason Top 25.
 
"It was back-and-forth: first half was interesting," Boyd said. "Both teams had a couple of really good chances. We didn't have as many, but I thought ours were exceptionally dangerous. Second half got going and they came at us for a while, and we did a really good job of weathering it and keeping them out of the goal. I felt like we were defending an awful lot of that second half and then slowly, we started getting a piece of the ball and creating our chances."
 
Hollenbach was huge – coming up with eight of her career-best 10 saves in the second half with the game on the line. She came up with big stop after big stop as the game was headed down the stretch, keeping MKE in position for the big victory when the goal finally came.
 
The scoring play came off a corner kick. Lola Wojcik lined up the corner and sent it on goal. Initially headed by a defender, Zoey Pagels flicked it forward with a header and Skinner-Barrett knocked it to the far post with a header of her own, scoring her second goal of the season at the 81:31 mark.
 
"In the last 10-15 minutes, we started pushing at them," Boyd said. "We got three corners in a row and it was on the third one that Ashlyn found a way to put her head on it."
 
From there it was up to the defense, as Hollenbach made a nice save in the 83^rd minute before the final Gopher rush was thwarted. With 90 seconds left in the match, the ball was in front of goal in a scramble. The defense came up big – officially blocking one shot while turning away what looked like one or two more attempts to help ice the victory – just the third home loss for Minnesota since the start of last season.
 
"We kind of built a fort and kept them out for the final eight minutes or so of the game," Boyd said. "Really, really good performance by us just in terms of character, grit, focus, and some of those things. I feel like we put together a number of good character-games in the past three here. It started with the tie against Northwestern; I thought we played our hearts out at North Carolina – they are just really good. We are still the only team to score on them at their place this year. And then to get this win is a nice way to cap off a really tough stretch we have had."
 
The Panthers did get outshot, 23-8, but did have a couple of other great looks at finding another goal. With just under 18 minutes left in the scoreless affair, Kiersten White sent service into the box. Kristina Karlof flicked it ahead, and Pagels backheeled a perfect pass to Mallory McGuire. McGuire got a good look at getting one past the keeper, but was barely stopped by her back leg to keep it at 0-0 at the time.
 
Emily Petring also had a quality chance turned away in the 51^st and McGuire nearly snuck one in from distance in the 46^th.
 
Hollenbach started the second half with a bang, making a phenomenal pair of saves in the 48^th and 49^th minutes that turned out to be just as important on the evening.
 
For the game, the Gophers also picked up advantages of 10-6 in shots on goal and 9-2 in corner kicks, but the only number that mattered was on the scoreboard, where Milwaukee picked up its second 1-0 victory over Minnesota in the past three meetings (also in 2023) and have now gone 3-2-1 over the past six matchups in the series with its Big 10 opponent.
 
Up next, the Panthers will play just one game next week, returning home to play host to SIUE Sunday. Game time is set for 1 p.m.