Titans, Eagles Play To Tie, Share WIAC Title

UW-Oshkosh earned a share of its first WIAC women's soccer championship with a 1-1 double-overtime tie against UW-La Crosse on Saturday (Oct. 31) in La Crosse.

The Titans (13-3-2) and Eagles (12-5-2) tied atop the WIAC standings with 5-1-1 league records, but UW-Oshkosh captured the top seed for the conference's postseason tournament by virtue of winning the tie breaker of goal differential in league contests.

First-round matches in the six-team WIAC Championship will be held Tuesday (Nov. 3). The contests feature fourth-seeded UW-Eau Claire (5-9-3, 4-3 WIAC) hosting fifth-seeded UW-River Falls (9-7-2, 3-3-1) and third-seeded UW-Whitewater (14-4, 5-2) welcoming sixth-seeded UW-Stout (8-7-3, 2-4-2).

Top-seeded UW-Oshkosh and second-seeded UW-La Crosse will then host semifinal games at 6 p.m. on Thursday (Oct. 5). The Titans will host the lowest remaining seed at J. J. Keller Field at Titan Stadium, while UW-La Crosse entertains the highest remaining seed.

The semifinal winners will meet for the title on Saturday (Nov. 7) at the site of the highest remaining seed. The winner of the WIAC Championship secures the league's automatic berth into the NCAA Division III Championship.

UW-Oshkosh's Rylee Engelland opened the scoring against UW-La Crosse in the 25th minute (24:20), but in the 41st (40:53) Alex Cording struck for the Eagles to tie the game.

UW-Oshkosh had two chances to score in the first 20 minutes of play, but shots by Robyn Elliott and Megan Paulick were both saved by UW-La Crosse goalkeeper Kennedy Brault.

Engelland then put the Titans ahead on a shot that followed a pass from Christina Mauthe. The goal was Engelland's third of the season.

UW-Oshkosh continued to control the action after Engelland's goal as they launched three more shots, but the Eagles tied the score off of Cording's strike just before halftime. Cording's seventh goal of the year followed a serve from Maggie Edmark. The match-tying score came on just the Eagles' third shot of the period.

UW-La Crosse came out firing in the first part of the second period as they launched three shots. UW-Oshkosh had the first shot on goal in the half, but Paulick's shot was saved by Brault in the 56th minute (55:05).

With 23 seconds left in regulation, UW-Oshkosh goalkeeper Nina Muzi came up with a save on a shot fired by the Eagles' Hayley Stephens. That save kept the match tied and helped force overtime.

UW-La Crosse owned all six of the overtime shots, but none were on goal and the game finished in a tie.

The Eagles ended the game with the upper hand in shots (16-13) and corner kicks (9-2).

Paulick led the Titans in shots with three, while Margaret Harings paced UW-La Crosse with six.

Brault saved four shots and Muzi two as both goalkeepers played the entire 110 minutes.

UW-Oshkosh owns a 3-0-2 record in its last five meetings with UW-La Crosse.