In cold and wet conditions at Fiskum Field, the UW Whitewater women’s soccer team (10-4) took a win over non-conference opponent Carthage College (3-9) with a 4-0 final score. A pair of goals came from sophomore forward Olivia May.

The Warhawks bounced back from a loss to Stevens Point in their previous game. The Hawks had control for much of the first half however were only able to knock in one goal. Freshman goalkeeper Lilly Horne had five saves in the first half, two of which happened in immediate succession of each other. This pair of saves led to a counterattack in which freshman defender Nina Malak was able to capitalize with a goal. 

“Lilly was great, she had two big saves that ultimately led the counterattack into our first goal,” said Head Coach Ryan Quamme. “Lilly has taken a little longer to adjust but we’ve always known that she could help us and in the last couple weeks she’d been ready so we thought we’d give her a shot and she looked excellent, she did everything she had to.”

It was more than goalkeeping that contributed to the win. The Warhawks had three scorers for four goals, more than they scored in their previous three games combined.

“That was obviously an emphasis today, just a few things technique wise we worked on and some of our principles, keep the shots on frame and making them count, taking that extra touch, being a bit more composed before we shoot. I thought the ladies executed very well. We focused on winning some balls out of the air, and shooting some headers as well. We got a header goal by Elizabeth which was great,” said Quamme.

Elizabeth Klein, a sophomore midfielder, assisted the first goal of the second half and scored a header goal just a few minutes later to put the Warhawks ahead 3-0 just over five minutes into the second half. Olivia May opened and closed the scoring in the second half with two goals, one of which was on a rebound off the post. 

“We got a lot of people experience tonight which was great, I think every field player got in and we got two goalkeepers in. They’ve been working every day so this was awesome giving them all a chance to get in,” said Quamme.

Although the final score shows a wide margin, the game was 1-0 at halftime, Head Coach Quamme felt that the difference in the second half was getting in more players who had been resting in the first half. Going up against more tired Carthage players opened the door to three second half goals. 

“I thought we played a really good first 45 minutes,” said Carthage Head Coach Ian Wilson. “I thought we had a few really good looks in the first half but those looks did not materialize in the second. We came out a bit more frantic in the second… we needed to clean things up, we didn’t execute like we did in the first half.”

Halftime stats were similar between the Warhawks and the Firebirds. Whitewater led eight shots to six however Carthage put more shots on goal than the Warhawks, five to three. The second half was dominated by Whitewater, scoring three goals on 15 shots while only facing three from Carthage.

The Warhawks capped off the week with a 1-0 victory at UW Eau Claire on Saturday Oct. 16. The Hawks will be back in action next week with two conference games at home.

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Lyric Trempe