The UW Oshkosh women’s soccer team beat UW-Eau Claire 2-1 on Oct. 2 in their Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) opener.

The Blugolds opened the scoring in the 27th minute with a Megan Hanson goal, her fourth of the season, off an assist from Lola Ruff. Both teams had four shots in the first half, and UWO forced three saves by UW-Eau Claire goalkeeper Anna Sveiven. The Titans could not find the back of the net as the first half ended 1-0 Blugolds.

After halftime, UWO broke through and tied the game 1-1. In the 56th minute, freshman midfielder Piper Green scored on a 13-yard volley from a corner kick taken by Riley Kaufmann. This goal was Green’s fifth of the season and Kaufmann’s fourth assist. The Titans later took the lead in the 73rd minute on a 12-yard strike from senior forward Mallory Knight, her fifth goal of the season, assisted by Molly Jackson. The goal from Knight marked her 50th career point as a member of the Titans. Knight has 22 goals and 6 assists over four seasons with UWO. In soccer, like hockey, one point is given to a player for an assist and two are given for a goal. Points are only used in personal stats.

“It was a really cool feeling!” Knight said after the game. “I actually had no idea that I had scored my 50th point until I saw the post about it (on Instagram), so I was really surprised but super excited to have achieved that.”

Knight’s goal proved to be the decisive one as the Titans went on to win 2-1 in front of 165 fans at Simpson field in Eau Claire. UWO has played superb defense this year, only allowing seven goals in 11 games and held the Blugolds without a shot for the final 72 minutes of the game. 

Eau Claire had four shots in the game, all by forward Megan Hanson. UWO finished with 13 shots, with nine coming in the second half. Knight led the team in shots, finishing with four, and three of them required a save from the Blugold goalkeeper. Titan goalie Erin Toomey finished the game facing four shots, one shot on goal and one goal allowed. Toomey did not record a save during the game. Eau Claire goalie Anna Sveiven faced 13 shots, eight on goal, had six saves and allowed two goals. 

With the win, UWO improved to 8-2-1 (1-0 in WIAC) and Eau Claire fell to 5-4-2 (0-1).

This was the 40th meeting between UWO and UW-Eau Claire, and the Titans have won the last nine out of 11 meetings between the two teams. The win was also the 199th win for head coach Erin Coppernoll who has coached the team since 2004. Coppernoll is already the winningest coach in UWO women’s soccer history and looks to achieve win number 200 against UW- Stevens Point on Wednesday. Go to https://www.uwoshkoshtitans.com/sports/wsoc/index for Wednesday’s game details.

The Titans will next play UW-Stout, which is 8-3-1 (1-0), at Titan Stadium at 4 p.m. Saturday.