MILWAUKEE - The Milwaukee women's soccer team picked up the pace in the second half, scoring a pair of goals after intermission in claiming a 3-0 victory over Cleveland State Friday night at Engelmann Stadium.
 
The Panthers (15-1-0, 9-0-0 Horizon League) put the finishing touches on the Vikings (10-6-1, 6-2-1 Horizon League) by outshooting them 14-to-1 in the second half, with Marissa Stovring putting an exclamation to "Senior Night" by scoring late in her regular-season finale.
 
"We end the season with a win, we get to prepare for the conference tournament now," head coach Troy Fabiano said. "Senior Night – you have a lot of moving pieces going on, but yes, it's exciting any time you can get a win at home."
 
With the win, Milwaukee becomes the first league team to ever reach nine wins (9-0) in conference play, extending its unbeaten streak against conference foes to 24 games (22-0-2) in regular-season play. The squad also finished an unblemished 8-0 at home in 2018, moving that streak to 23 games unbeaten (21-0-2) at Engelmann in regular-season play.
 
Cleveland State, locked into the second seed, ran five players out into the starting lineup who were making their first starts of the fall and also sat its regular goalkeeper.
 
"I think there are a lot of dynamics at play," Fabiano said. "It was a little bit of a slow start for us. I think we weren't very sharp in the first half and then we settled things down in the second."
 
Up just 1-0 at intermission in a game that saw neither team with any real offensive flow in the first half (MKE led in shots, 5-3), the Panthers stepped it up a notch in the second and came away with two more goals in addition to a handful of quality opportunities to make the final margin larger.
 
As it stood, Milwaukee held that 1-0 lead at the break on a goal by Mackenzie Schill. She ran on to a long ball from Haley Johnson while shielding the defender, using a left-footed strike in the box to net the eventual game-winner at the 29:17 mark.
 
In the second, Chandler McDaniel nearly made it 2-0, but her one-touch off a thru ball from Johnson was deflected just enough by the charging CSU keeper to send it wide of the target in the 59^th minute.
 
However, the defense couldn't stop the Panthers just a few minutes later. Corrigan's free kick went right, was headed back to the far post by McKaela Schmelzer, right to Jelena Sever who snuck her header inside the left post to make it 2-0 for her sixth goal of the year.
 
Schill had a nice look at a second goal in the 71^st, but her header went just wide off service from Gaby Schwartz.
 
Stovring closed out "Senior Night" with a bang, scoring on a pretty touch when she beat the charging goalkeeper to a ball headed forward by Sever off a goal kick. She beat the final defender and used a left-footed shot to send the ball bouncing into the wide-open net to close out the scoring at the 75:17 mark.
 
For the game, Milwaukee closed with advantages of 19-to-4 in shots, 7-to-2 in shots on goal and 5-to-1 in corner kicks. In all, 23 players saw the field for Milwaukee, with 11 recording shots. Schill paced the offense with four of them.
 
In net, Elaina LaMacchia made a pair of easy saves for her seventh shutout of the season.
 
The postseason is next, with the team hosting the Horizon League Tournament as regular-season champions. Semifinals will be played Thursday, with game one getting underway at 4 p.m. (CSU will play as the #2 seed) and the Panthers getting underway at 7 p.m.