Spring Break
Women's soccer clinches WIAC tournament bye with victory
Blugolds end six game winless with win over Oshkosh
Frank Pellegrino
Issue date: 10/22/09 Section: Sports
Posted 11:30 p.m. 10-26-2009
The women's soccer team completed their conference season on Saturday with a victory and concluded their regular season Sunday with a non-conference loss.
On Saturday the team faced the UW-Oshkosh Titans in a defensive struggle, before coming away with a 1-0 win. The victory was the first for the Blugolds in their previous six games.
"Overall there were times when we really controlled the game and there were times where we let them in," Senior Sam Krueger said. "I mean, getting the win was good though, as far as coming back from all those losses."
At halftime the score was knotted up at 0-0, even though Eau Claire had doubled Oshkosh's shot total 8-4.
Krueger said the artificial turf at Oshkosh may have had an impact on how the Blugolds were able to play during the game.
"It was a lot to get used to used to, the field was a lot faster because of the turf," Krueger said.
Finally, at the 80:22 mark, sophomore Lisa Marco was able to break the deadlock for the Blugolds and score the first goal of the game on an assist from Junior Megan Hillesheim. The goal was the fifth of the season for Marco, tied for third most on the team.
With the 1-0 lead, Eau Claire was forced back on defense for the final nine minutes, something head coach Sean Yengo thinks could be improved on.
"It was a little hectic, it's just keeping composed in the heat of the moment," Yengo said. "That's probably the one thing that we have to kind of get better at."
The score remained the same for the rest of the game, and Eau Claire improved to 6-1-1 in the WIAC with the win. In the process, the Blugolds clinched second place in the conference and a first round bye in the WIAC tournament. Oshkosh, who finished 4-3-1 in the conference, just needed to defeat the Blugolds to take second.
"The nicest thing about second is that it gives us an extra day off," Yengo said. "And this team really needs an extra day off."
The women's soccer team completed their conference season on Saturday with a victory and concluded their regular season Sunday with a non-conference loss.
On Saturday the team faced the UW-Oshkosh Titans in a defensive struggle, before coming away with a 1-0 win. The victory was the first for the Blugolds in their previous six games.
"Overall there were times when we really controlled the game and there were times where we let them in," Senior Sam Krueger said. "I mean, getting the win was good though, as far as coming back from all those losses."
At halftime the score was knotted up at 0-0, even though Eau Claire had doubled Oshkosh's shot total 8-4.
Krueger said the artificial turf at Oshkosh may have had an impact on how the Blugolds were able to play during the game.
"It was a lot to get used to used to, the field was a lot faster because of the turf," Krueger said.
Finally, at the 80:22 mark, sophomore Lisa Marco was able to break the deadlock for the Blugolds and score the first goal of the game on an assist from Junior Megan Hillesheim. The goal was the fifth of the season for Marco, tied for third most on the team.
With the 1-0 lead, Eau Claire was forced back on defense for the final nine minutes, something head coach Sean Yengo thinks could be improved on.
"It was a little hectic, it's just keeping composed in the heat of the moment," Yengo said. "That's probably the one thing that we have to kind of get better at."
The score remained the same for the rest of the game, and Eau Claire improved to 6-1-1 in the WIAC with the win. In the process, the Blugolds clinched second place in the conference and a first round bye in the WIAC tournament. Oshkosh, who finished 4-3-1 in the conference, just needed to defeat the Blugolds to take second.
"The nicest thing about second is that it gives us an extra day off," Yengo said. "And this team really needs an extra day off."
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