On Friday, Sept. 27, the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Women’s Soccer Team battled against nationally ranked Christopher Newport University (CNU). After a hard-fought 90 minutes the Eagles fell to the Captains, 1-3.
In recent years, the team has achieved remarkable success within the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC). The Eagles have secured both the regular season championship and conference tournament championship titles the last two seasons.
They have also competed in the national tournament five out of the last six years, and six of the last eight years they’ve made it to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournament.
With a seven-year streak of competing in the WIAC championship game, the Eagles are in high hopes for what this season has to bring.
“Our seniors have been to three sweet-sixteens and so they have the opportunity this year to play in four NCAA tournaments, which will be the first class ever to come through UWL and do that,” said Jason Murphy, head coach of UWL women’s soccer team.
Murphy has been coaching at UWL for 11 years and knows that in order to be the best, you need to play the best. Friday’s matchup against #4-ranked CNU was not the Eagle’s first encounter with a nationally ranked opponent. This year UWL has also faced #22-ranked Calvin University and #20-ranked North Central College in order to prepare for tournament play later this fall.
When asked his thoughts going into the CNU game Murphy said, “I don’t think we’ve ever had a top five school come to La Crosse…It’s a huge challenge but also a huge opportunity for us.”
At the start of the game CNU took a 1-0 lead off a free kick by Hanna Heaton. Less than a minute later UWL’s Jillian Sawadski tied the score with an assist from Aubree Caya. Although UWL came with a quick response, CNU didn’t keep the game tied for long. Just over a minute after Sawadski’s goal, forward Emma Ricc scored for CNU giving the Captains a 2-1 lead.
After the exciting four-minute stretch, neither team scored the rest of the half. It wasn’t until 30 minutes into the second half that CNU’s Heaton scored her second goal. For the remainder of the game the Eagles were unable to get past CNU’s defense and the final score sat at 1-3.
With the victory, CNU extended their winning streak to 74 games, breaking the previous NCAA Division III record of 73 games consecutively unbeaten set by Messiah College.
While Friday’s game is a tough loss for UWL, the team is proud of their performance against the Captains and are turning their attention to the conference tournament starting next week.
“We’re not going to do anything different you know; if we play like this for the next month we’ll be in a great spot,” Murphy said after the game against CNU.
The Racquet Press caught up with Jillian Sawadski after the game. The sophomore forward echoed Murphy’s thoughts about the upcoming WIAC tournament.
“I think to just put [the game against CNU] behind us and we know that we did everything we could. Next week we’re starting our conference tournament, so we know we have to step up and keep playing like we know how to play,” Sawadski said.
On Saturday, Oct. 8, UWL returns to the field to kick off their conference tournament. They will be hosting UW-Oshkosh in the WIAC opener at 5 p.m.
