By Tyler Job

Oct. 5, 2016

The No. 9 UW-Whitewater women’s soccer team extended its winning streak to 10 games after a tough stretch of two home games against Loras College on Sept. 28, and UW-Stout on Oct. 1.

The first game was a nail biter, but the ‘Hawks were able to outlast the Loras College Duhawks 3-2 to retain the Hawk Cup.

UW-W came out of the gate rather quickly when sophomore midfielder Mackenzie Serbousek struck the ball off the crossbar twice to go past the Duhawks goalkeeper Maria Siebels and put the Warhawks 1-0 in the seventh minute.

Less than three minutes later, junior midfielder Marie Lesperance put UW-W up 2-0 in the tenth minute. Freshman forward Kaci Schonert assisted on both early goals.

Head coach Ryan Quamme said he liked the way Schonert has been playing for the team.

“Kaci is very technical, has great vision on the field, she’s been playing well and she’s got nine or ten assists on the year,” Quamme said. “Marie Lesperance made a great run on the second goal and Kaci saw her.”

For the rest of the half, UW-W was very consistent on defense and shut down Loras’ offense when needed.

The Duhawks, however, came roaring into the second half when forward Gretchen Schutz free- kicked the ball out of Warhawk freshman goalkeeper Sara Klimisch’s reach to trim the score 2-1 just eight minutes in.

Loras had a chance to tie the game two minutes later when forward Lauren Bolnius broke free between a couple of Warhawk defenders, but Klimisch answered with a save.

Minutes later, Gretchen Schutz came to bite UW-W again in the 70th minute with a goal to knot the score 2-2.

“Credit to Loras, they played to their strengths,” Quamme said. “Loras and us always battle for close games, so I was proud of the ladies after giving up a two goal lead. They were able to find a good result against        quality play.”

Lees than a minute later, Duhawk defender Madie Avery was ejected, leaving Loras down a player the rest of the game. It almost haunted them right away when senior forward Brianna Reid nearly scored her school record-breaking goal, but missed just over the crossbar.

The Warhawks regained the lead, 3-2 in the 75th minute when sophomore forward Emily Mouille kicked the ball from the corner that seemed to deflect off of junior midfielder Devon Polk to sneak the ball into the net.

“We spend a lot of time on corners,” Quamme said. “There are 20 people in the box, and you just serve it in there to make something happen. It’s a matter of creating a good corner kick and having great service to make that happen.”

The rest of the game was history as the ‘Hawks improved to 10-1 overall, while the Duhawks dropped to 5-3. UW-W finished the night with six shots on goal and 10 saves, whereas Loras ended with 12 shots on goal and three saves.

UW-W then beat UW-Stout 2-0 on Oct. 1.

UW-W junior midfielder Marie Lesperance scored the first goal of the game in the 10th minute before history was made.

Reid, came into the game with 55 career goals, which was tied for most in UW-Whitewater school history.

Less than a minute after the first goal,, she received a rebound off the goal post and booted the ball into the back of the net to officially break the school record for most career goals with 56.

“It felt pretty great,” Reid said. “It’s not just me, it’s the whole team for having my success reach that far so it felt pretty great.”

After Reid’s record-breaking goal, the ‘Hawks would not give up the pressure they were bringing to the Blue Devil defense. UW-W had a couple of chances later in the first half to blow the game wide open in the 24th minute when sophomore forward Emily Mouille was left alone and kicked the ball directly on goal but Stout’s goalkeeper Lynn Johnson made the save.

The score was almost 3-0 again when freshman midfielder Briar Schwardt’s shot scathed the top crossbar with less than ten seconds remaining in the first half.

“I don’t think we finished our chances as hard,” Reid said. “I think the conditions today … threw us off a little bit. For a first conference game, our nerves are … out of it now, so I think we can learn from this and move on to Oshkosh next week.”

In a game that felt like the Warhawks were ahead by five or six goals, the Blue Devils’ goalkeeper Johnson constantly made key stops to keep Stout within striking distance. In the 53rd minute, senior forward Carly Pottle was denied when she made a nifty cross-over between two Blue Devil defenders and put a shot on goal. Reid tried to kick the fumbled ball, but Johnson again came up big.

It became even more nerve-wracking for Johnson in the 57th minute when Pottle and Lesperance had two open shots at the goal, but were once again stopped by Johnson’s hands.

However, neither Whitewater nor Stout was able to register any goals as the Warhawks topped the Blue Devils 2-0 to extend their winning streak to ten games and advance to 11-1 on the season.

UW-W finished with eight shots on goal and two saves, while Stout ended with just two shots on goal and six saves.

The UW-W women’s team’s next game is on Wednesday, Oct. 5 against UW-Oshkosh at Fiskum Field.