In a game that will be officially recorded as a draw, the UW-Whitewater women’s soccer team fell to UW-Oshkosh in a shootout that decided the WIAC Championship.
Although they didn’t the tournament, early Monday morning the team was awarded its first bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Warhawks will start play Friday against Aurora University. The tournament is held in Waverly, Iowa.
After 120 minutes, the two sides were even at 1-1. The Titans netted four penalty kicks to the Warhawks’ three and will move onto the NCAA Tournament. The Warhawks, who won the WIAC regular season and earned the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament, will have to wait and hope to receive an at-large bid to nationals.
In the mind of the Warhawks’ coach Greg Henschel, his team was the better of the two sides, although the scoreboard did not reflect it.
“We had a lot of chances today, I mean we had 24 shots,” Henschel said. “We were the stronger side and I think anyone watching knows that, but sometimes soccer’s a difficult game that way.”
Henschel said the women have impressed him all season and even though they lost the shootout, the girls showed their heart.
The Titans scored in the 65th minute and soon after the goal, the ‘Hawks lost team leader Kelsey Finn to an injury. Despite losing the momentum, the team battled back and tied the game at 1-1 on Christina Tooren’s goal during the 74th minute. The remaining time, plus two overtime periods did not yield any more goals for either side. The Titans eventually prevailed, handing the ‘Hawks their fifth loss of the season.
The ‘Hawks have compiled a nice résumé, going 13-5-1 and winning the WIAC.
Henschel is excited to be headed to the NCAA Tournament.
“For me, our girls’ body of work is more than sufficient to make a claim for an NCAA Tournament, but you just never know.”
One component of getting an at-large bid to nationals that may work against the ‘Hawks is the weakness of the WIAC as a soccer conference.
Although the WIAC has some solid teams, the conference is lacking depth and lagging behind many of the nation’s great soccer conferences, Henschel said.
However, the ‘Hawks have been consistently improving over the past few years and Henschel believes this year’s senior class truly deserves to go to the national tournament.
“This group of girls has been absolutely great,” Henschel said. “They’ve done so much for this program. It’s hard to put into words how much these seniors have meant to us.”
