MILWAUKEE – Kiersten White scored the only goal of the day, and
Lauren Nidey recorded her league-leading ninth shutout of the season in net to help the Milwaukee women's soccer team claim a 1-0 victory over Green Bay Saturday afternoon at Engelmann Stadium.
"Credit to this team," head coach
Kevin Boyd said. "We talked about it in Indy after the game [conference opener at IU Indy Sept. 19], and it was a really close game, and we talked about embracing the grind. And that was going to be our conference season, and that's what we've done. We knew this game was going to be tight. Green Bay is a good team, and I thought they played well. The 1-0 score is not a surprise. I think that's probably kind of what you would think coming into this game with number one playing number two, but really happy with our team in particular."
The Panthers (13-4-2, 11-0-0 Horizon League) picked up things after halftime, outshooting the Phoenix (12-2-4, 7-2-2 Horizon League) by a count of 9-1 over the final 45 minutes, with White finding the game-winner on a header at the 68:33 mark in a matchup that previewed the top two seeds for the upcoming postseason.
"We got to halftime, it's 0-0, and we knew we had to do a little bit more and get more chances inside their box," Boyd said. "We needed to find our head on corners and then we just needed to turn it up a little notch so we could get more chances and get into their box a little bit more. I thought we did that exceptionally well. Well done on creating the number of corners. Credit to our team. We found a way, and going undefeated in the season is pretty remarkable."
The victory gives MKE an unblemished 11-0-0 record in the regular season this year, marking the 14th unbeaten and untied campaign in the history of the Horizon League – also the first since the Panthers accomplished the feat with an 11-0-0 run through the 2021 regular season. In addition, the beat goes on for the longest active streak of its kind in the nation, as the program is now unbeaten in 50 consecutive (42-0-8) regular-season Horizon League matches, dating back to 2022.
"I don't want to start patting ourselves on the back yet, but we do have to recognize that we went 11-0 and found a way to get the job done and did it very effectively," Boyd said. "So, credit to this team. We had two returning starters, one of them was out for half the year, so we had all these players that were either new to our program from a transfer or new coming in as freshmen that all had to adapt to the way that we play, the demands that we set, the expectations we have on ourselves, and find a way to put the performance on the field – and they did a really good job in conference. We've accomplished two goals, now we're ready for the next goal."
The offense showed up in the second half, producing that 9-1 shot clip as well as forcing an 8-0 advantage in second-half corner kicks. White's goal came on one of those, started by
Ashlyn Derosier. The first touch was a header by
Ashlyn Skinner-Barrett that was cleared off the line by a header from a GB defender. That ball came right back to White, who was there to pounce and score her second goal of the season at the 68:33 mark.
The decision extends Milwaukee's win streak in the series to 11 in a row, and the team has lost just once to Green Bay since 2003, going 24-1-1 in that span.
The Panthers had plenty of chances in the second, including one in the 51
st minute. Following a buildup from Skinner-Barrett and
Emily Petring,
Denise Camarena took aim for the far post but just missed. Petring also had a great header chance in the 61
st minute, sending it just wide of the left post.
The first half went to the break with the visitors holding a 9-8 shot advantage, but Nidey was up to the task when called upon. Abbie O'Brien had a shot go off the top of the crossbar in the 31
st minute, while
Natalie Zodrow nearly completed a bicycle kick off a pass from Skinner-Barrett, but the attempt was grabbed just before it crossed at the post in the 18
th minute.
For the day, Milwaukee enjoyed advantage of 17-10 in total shots, 7-3 in shots on target, and 12-3 in corner kicks, while earning 59 percent of possession on the afternoon. Petring paced the offense with four shots, with Skinner-Barrett adding three of her own.
Up next, the Panthers will be the No. 1 seed in the postseason and host semifinals (Nov. 11) and the championship (Nov. 14) with a win. The final Horizon League Tournament schedule will be posted to the Milwaukee website as soon as it is available, with first-round action being played November 7.
