Last week was the end of our regular season so this weekend was the start of our post-season play. This weekend was the Horizon league tournament and we were hosting. We were the #1 seed so we got a first round by and only had to play Friday and Sunday.
Our Friday game was against Butler and, while the score during the regular season was lopsided, they gave us a very tough game so we had to be ready. The game had a great atmosphere and we were ready to come out and prove that our undefeated regular season was not a fluke. Butler came out in a very defensive formation and so we had the ball in their half most of the game. They were trying to frustrate us but we kept our cool and close to the end of the first half Kelsey Holbert had a great move on the end line to beat her defender. Then she hit a low driven cross that I was able to put away for us to get a 1-0 lead. At halftime we talked about not getting frustrated and to just keep the ball moving. The second half I thought we did a great job of keeping our head and keeping the ball but we couldn’t get another goal. The game ended 1-0 and while we would have liked to have scored more goals we were happy with the win and advancing to the finals.
The finals were held on Sunday and we were playing a very feisty Wright State team. Wright State came out with a lot of energy and unlike Butler was trying to attack us. It worked because they got an early goal but our team has a lot of maturity and experience so we knew this it is a long game. Then Wright State made the mistake of leaving Apple out wide 1v1 and she megged her defender and crossed the ball to Laurel who made a great run into the box and slotted the ball near post to tie the game 1-1. Then right before half time Morgan, Kelly, and Apple were hustling in the box and the ball popped out wide and Kelly calmly put the ball away in the low corner. We were up 2-1 at halftime and extremely happy with our response to being down a goal. We were also feeling that we had to momentum and it was very important to not let it go. We came out and really took it to Wright State and our seniors really took over. Kiki scored our next goal off a sick run through the Wright State defense and then hit a rocket of a shot into the side netting. Then we were awarded a free kick and Kenzie hit a perfect ball into the box that Apple was able to put away. Then Apple put the exclamation point on our finals win with an upper 90 blast from the top of the box. The game ended 5-1 and we are HORIZON LEAGUE TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONS FOR THE 4TH YEAR IN A ROW!!!!!
This senior class is the first class to win the tournament all 4 years and it is just a testament to all that they have done for UWM women’s soccer…….in the words of Apple “can you say dynasty?” This was a great weekend and now we are all waiting eagerly to find out whom we play in the NCAA tournament.
GO PANTHERS!!!!!
