MILWAUKEE - The Milwaukee women's soccer team dominated play all night against Oakland University in the Horizon League Tournament semifinals, but it wasn't until Anna Smalley found the back of the net in the 85^th minute that the team was able to secure the 1-0 victory Thursday night at Engelmann Stadium.
 
"Obviously getting to the finals and playing for a championship on our field is a big deal," Milwaukee head coach Troy Fabiano said. "We knew it was going to be a tight matchup against Oakland, they have a very similar style about keeping the ball. We felt in the first half we were always just one pass away and didn't feel extremely dangerous but we had the possession. At halftime, we told the girls to just relax a little bit in front of goal and take that extra touch if we had to. Their goalkeeper made a couple of saves to keep them in the game but we kept plugging away and I give credit to the ladies."
 
The Panthers (13-4-2) ran up a 19-to-8 shot advantage over the Golden Grizzlies (9-10-1) and had the large majority of possession, yet found themselves in a scoreless affair with time winding down.
 
Smalley ran onto an endline service that was partially deflected off the foot of Lourdes Onwuemeka, firing the ball high to the far post for her 10^th goal of the season and sending the Panthers on to the Horizon League Tournament Championship and a chance for a trip to the NCAA Tournament next.
 
"It's great to get to the finals but obviously, when you get to the finals you want to win it and that's our goal," Fabiano said.
 
That game will take place Saturday at 6 p.m. and will match up Milwaukee with No. 3 seed Northern Kentucky, who prevailed 3-2 after falling down by a pair of goals to No. 2 Detroit Mercy.
 
Tonight's win improves the Panthers to 7-0 this season in the months of October and November, a number that increases to 12-0-2 over the past two years since Fabiano was named the head coach, proving he certainly knows how to have his team peak for the postseason.
 
For the majority of the evening, it felt like one of those games where one team completely dominates chances and possession but the game heads to overtime scoreless. Smalley took care of that at the 84:13 mark, becoming the first Panther to score at least 10 goals in a season since Krissy Dorre finished with 10 in 2013.
 
"That's the joy of this game," Fabiano said. "The momentum can change quickly so you have to take care of the opportunities that we had. Defensively we stayed still and didn't create too many gaps for them to find. We kept trying to find that one goal, held tight and hopefully can shore up a championship on Saturday.
 
The goal for Smalley was also the ninth game-winning goal of her career – of which six of them have come as the lone UWM goal in 1-0 victories.
 
Scoreless and getting towards the final 20 minutes of the night, the Milwaukee offense continued to push and came up with four corner kicks and four shot attempts in a span of just 2:43 on the clock but continued to be denied.
 
Oakland's Alison Holland played a key role, contributing 10 saves to keep the Panthers at bay. She made a pair of brilliant stops back-to-back in the 70^th minute, leaping to stop a chip shot from Callie O'Donnell just under the cross bar before stopping Smalley point-blank on the rebound.
 
Mallory Geurts was at it again in goal, lowering her league-leading goals-against average down to 0.62 with her sixth individual shutout of the season. She recorded three saves on the night, including a key one in the 78^th minute on a tough one-hopper out in front of goal.
 
In addition to the 19-to-8 shot advantage, UWM had eight of the 10 corner kicks. O'Donnell led the way with five shots, three of which were on goal, forcing a tough save in the 23^rd minute. Smalley finished with all four of her shots on target and Aubrey Krahn had three.
 
The championship will take place Saturday at 6 p.m. at Engelmann Stadium, with Milwaukee in search of its 12^th trip to the NCAA Tournament in program history. The regular-season matchup between the Panthers and the Norse resulted in a 1-0 win for UWM back on Sept. 24 in Kentucky.