The UW Oshkosh (6-7-5, 2-4-1 conference) women’s soccer team was eliminated in its 3-1 defeat to UW-River Falls (13-5-2, 3-3-1 conference) at Ramer Soccer Field in the WIAC Tournament quarterfinal round on Wednesday, Nov. 5. Oshkosh falls to 19-15-3 against River Falls all-time in head-to-head matches.
The No. 6 Titans and No. 3 Falcons tied in shots taken at 13. UWRF had two more saves than UWO at seven, and outled Oshkosh in corners 7-2.
Defense was prevalent early, with it being scoreless in the first 20-plus minutes of the first half; however, the Falcons made it 2-0 after 34 minutes because of goals from Gretchen Hanson and Brooke McDaniels.
Titans’ Delaney Sponholz scored her first collegiate goal unassisted in the 83rd minute after being down 3-0 because of Ellie Ketcher’s goal for UWRF.
Erin Coppernoll, Oshkosh’s women’s head coach, said she was happy to see Sponholz have that moment.
“It was awesome to see Delaney get her first collegiate goal in her final eight minutes of play,” Coppernoll said. “She has overcome two knee surgeries and was unsure of how this season would play out. To see her end the way her career did was simply amazing. A great story about resilience and adversity for her.”
UWO’s Gabby Born led the team with five shots, three being on goal. Oshkosh’s goalkeeper, Mallory Kerhin, had five saves, while Courtney Bain had seven saves for River Falls. Kerhin was voted WIAC Kwik Trip Women’s Soccer Defensive Athlete of the Week for the second time this season after holding River Falls scoreless in the Titans’ win on Nov. 1.
Coppernoll saw a lot of growth this year from the women’s soccer team.
“Last year, we didn’t compete in training and in games,” Coppernoll said. “This season, the team competed. We have a very deep team, and we saw that at times, when we subbed, our level of play went up and carried the team forward. Our defense was better this season compared to last season. We still can improve in this area, but we were better than last season. If you can defend well, you have a chance to win every game.”
The goal for next year is for players to focus on improving their first touch and scoring more goals collectively.
