Oct. 8, 2014 By Andrew Lowe
The women’s soccer team is rolling through their competition as of late, winning seven straight soccer matches. The defense is in the spotlight while the ’Hawks keep adding wins to their record.
“Our defensive effort the last three weeks has been especially rewarding as we have gave up one goal in our last seven matches,” head coach Ryan Quamme said.
The ’Hawks have shut out six of their last seven opponents, including five straight at one point, breaking the previous school record of four straight shutouts. The ’Hawks have outscored their opponents by an astounding 22 goals to six this season as they look to win their fifth straight WIAC conference title.
With UW-Platteville and UW-Eau Clare next on the schedule, the ’Hawks look to keep their unblemished conference record intact. On Oct. 1, they took on UW-Platteville on the road, knocking off the Pioneers, 2-1.
Sophomore Brianna Reid scored her team leading sixth goal, and freshman Nicole Lorenz tallied her second goal of the season to help the ’Hawks win on the road. This road win improves their WIAC conference record to 3-0.
When asked how it felt getting the Warhawks on the board early, Reid said “Platteville is one of the toughest teams in our conference I believe, and having an early goal in the game, I feel it really helped our team in the long run. It always feels great scoring a goal and putting the team in a great position.”
The Blugolds stood in the way of the Warhawks next on Oct. 4. Junior Jenna Woodson’s lone shot found the back of the net, and proved to be all that the ’Hawks would need to take down the Blugolds on the road.
Defense proved to be a strong point in this one, as they did not allow a shot on goal by the Blugolds the whole match. The second road win in four days improves the ’Hawks record to 4-0, half way through their tough conference schedule.
Quamme was pleased with the play of his team this past week.
“Both games this past week were highly contested games as we expect from our conference opponents,” Quamme said. “Whenever you can win conference road matches, especially multiple games in a week, you have to be pleased with the outcome.”
The ’Hawks currently sit at 10-2 and head down to Chicago on Oct. 8 to take on the North Park University Vikings before they have a big Oct. 11 conference test at UW-LaCrosse.
UW-La Crosse is unbeaten in the WIAC.
“They will be motivated to keep pace with us in the conference standings and looking to protect their home field,” Quamme said. “UW-LaCrosse is well coached and I know they will be prepared for our match.”
Reid knows being WIAC champions, they will get every opponent’s best game of the year.
“As our coach says, we have a target on our back with being conference champions,” Reid said. Every team in the conference will come out and play the hardest because they want to defeat us. If we stick to our team principles, we will come out of each game with a win and defend our title.”
