Nov. 4, 2004
Contact: Brian McCann
INDIANAPOLIS -- The inaugural season of women's soccer came to a close for Cleveland State this afternoon when the Vikings fell to UW-Milwaukee, 4-1, in the first round of the Horizon League Championships.
The Vikings went winless during their first season, ending the year with an 0-20 mark while UW-Milwaukee, the league's regular season champion, will face the winner of the Loyola-Wright State match in the league semi-finals.
"I know the final score doesn't show it, but we played very hard today and did a nice job facing a tough opponent under bad weather conditions," head coach Derrek Falor said.
"Amber (Rasmussen) and Heather (Clapacs) were dynamite today. As they have done for most of the year, they won balls in the midfield and helped to control play."
UW-Milwaukee scored the only goal of the first half in the 15th minute when Andrea Kramer scored from eight yards out on the right side. The Panthers extended the lead to 2-0 shortly after the intermission when Elizabeth Chudy headed home a Sara Lewis cross at the 47:37 mark.
Cleveland State came right back, scoring just 27 seconds later when Clapacs took a drop-back pass from Rasmussen on the right side and blasted a shot from 25 yards out into the lower right corner of the net.
"It was a beautiful goal," Falor said. "It showed our maturity because we didn't get down on ourselves after letting up a goal. Instead, we came right back and made a nice run."
Lewis pushed the lead to 3-1 when she scored from 25 yards out at the 57:56 mark. UWM's Elizabeth McNally closed the scoring in the final minutes when she pounced on a rebound in the box and beat Viking netminder Ashley Kidwell with just 3:57 left.
Cleveland State was out-shot 28-7 in the contest with Clapacs leading the offense with five shots. Kidwell made four saves in goal for CSU.
"I couldn't be prouder than I am of our team," Falor said. "We knew heading into this season that the success of the team wasn't going to be measured in wins and losses, instead by how much development we had shown from the start of preseason practice to the end of the year.
"I have seen tremendous growth in the 12 weeks since practice started, both on the field and off. They have worked hard, fought through the adversity of being a first-year program and represented Cleveland State University well. It would have been very easy for them to just give up as the losses mounted, but they didn't. They have played with effort and intensity for 90 minutes in every match and they have given us a lot to build on in the off-season."
