Women's Soccer Advances To LMC Championship Game
November 5th, 2003
Sheboygan-The Lakeland College Women's Soccer team earned the right to defend their 2002 Lake Michigan Conference Tournament Championship on Saturday, November 8th, by defeating Wisconsin Lutheran 2-0 this afternoon.

The Muskie win today not only advances the squad to the LMC Tournament Championship, but also avenges their only conference loss of the year that came at the hands of the Crusaders back on October 4th.

After the opening playoff jitters settled the Muskies were able to create some serious scoring opportunities. The first came from senior striker Amy Freier (Sheboygan, WI) who pushed the ball just wide of the Crusader's goal. However, moments later Freier's efforts sent Amanda Smith (Neenah, WI) on her way to the eventual game winning goal as she out-ran the Crusader defenders and knocked the ball into the back of the net. The goal was Smith's 29th of the season.

Not to be outdone, freshman midfielder Tracy Bins (New Franken, WI) joined the offensive attack with a rocket from the top of the 18 yard box that blew past the Crusader keeper, in the 21st minute of the game to make it 2-0.

The Muskie back line consisting of freshman Allyce Maus (Green Bay, WI), sophomore Briana Plautz (Green Bay, WI), senior Lindsay Olm (Sheboygan, WI) and senior Michelle Schleh (New Holstein, WI) was solid and held the Crusaders to just 4 shots in the first 45 minutes of play.

The second half proved to be an exciting conclusion to a well-played game by both teams. A goalkeeper change and a renewed spirit provided the Crusaders with some fantastic goal scoring opportunities but freshman goalkeeper Alli Weiss (New Berlin, WI) came up with some big plays to help ensure the victory. The shutout was Weiss' 6th of her young career. Overall, the Muskies outshot the Crusaders 20-15.

The win evened the Muskies overall record at 10-10 after finishing the regular season in the LMC at 5-1.

The Muskies are eagerly awaiting Saturday's Championship match, which will be played at 12 noon on Muskie field verses Concordia, a team the Muskies beat 3-0 earlier this season. The winner of the game on Saturday will represent the Lake Michigan Conference in the NCAA tournament, a feat which has thus far eluded the Muskies.

Even though the Muskies won the tournament last season, they did not get an automatic NCAA bid due to only having six teams in the conference. NCAA rules mandate that a conference must have seven teams to qulaify for an automatic bid and MSOE did not field a team last year.