KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Down just a goal at the break, the Milwaukee women's soccer team saw No. 16 Tennessee score in the 46
th minute to take control of the tight match in claiming a 4-0 victory Thursday evening from Regal Stadium.
The Panthers (1-2-0) made it tough for the nationally-ranked Lady Vols (3-0-0) for the first 45-plus minutes, playing in front of a Regal Stadium record crowd of 5,489 – surpassing the previous high mark of 4,040 set in 2025.
"Another tough game for us on the road today against a very good team," head coach
Kevin Boyd said. "Tennessee is considered one of the top teams in the SEC this year and has a shot of winning it – they were very good. I thought on our end, we've grown since the Iowa game, which is really encouraging to see. We've certainly gotten better and mostly our improvements have come in our defense. We need to start focusing now on generating more of the ball so that we can get a little more attack going and cause some team some problems."
The only tally of the opening frame came in the 11
th minute, when Taylor Cheatham pounced on a loose ball in the box following a corner kick to make it 1-0 in UT's favor.
The Panthers dug on defense in and stayed right with the Vols until just after the break, conceding a goal at the 45:34 mark that changed the momentum of the match.
"Just 1-0 at halftime, that' was kind of generous to us as there were a couple really good chances that they missed that you can't count on very often," Boyd said. "So, still a couple areas we needed to improve. We went in the second half focusing on 'could we take another step forward' and unfortunately gave up a goal in the first 30 seconds of the half. While we didn't stop working hard, it certainly deflated our chances of coming back and trying to get a win."
Payton Green had the first MKE shot attempt of the evening in the seventh minute, while
Ashlyn Skinner-Barrett had a decent look in the 13
th minute that would have quickly dug the team out of the 1-0 hole.
Ashlyn Derosier forced a save in the 82
nd minute that could have broken up the shutout.
"Like the last time we played Iowa, I started making changes to try and get some people off the field because we have Sunday to think about," Boyd said. "I wanted to get a lot of players into the game and give them experience at this level as well and just keep developing people. Our takeaway after the game was, there's many small little areas we need to improve. The big areas have improved quite a bit; the small areas need to get better. And then we've got to be better with the ball, and we need to start generating more of an attack. More of our focus is going to start moving in that direction to get us going that way."
It's no rest for the Panthers, who will play back-to-back nationally-ranked opponents for just the second time in program history when they travel on to battle No. 25 Georgia Sunday. Game time is set for 11 a.m. CT.
