Milwaukee City Wire

The Milwaukee Panthers women's soccer team will begin its 36th NCAA Division I season on Thursday with an away match against the University of Wisconsin, ranked No. 23 in the preseason poll. The Panthers, led by head coach Kevin Boyd in his fourth year, will then return home to face Northern Iowa on Sunday.

Thursday's game against Wisconsin is scheduled for a 7 p.m. kickoff and will be streamed on Big Ten Network Plus. Sunday's home opener versus Northern Iowa will start at 5 p.m. and can be watched on ESPN+. Live statistics for both matches are available through the MKE website.

Milwaukee has faced Wisconsin 38 times since their first meeting in 1984, holding a record of 5-26-7 in the series. Recent games have been more competitive, with Milwaukee posting a 4-9-3 record against the Badgers since 2006. In their last encounter in September of last season, Wisconsin won 2-1.

The upcoming match against Northern Iowa marks only the second meeting between the two programs; Milwaukee won their previous contest in 2002.

The Panthers are coming off a successful season, having swept both the Horizon League regular-season and tournament titles for a third consecutive year under Boyd. The team has secured nine regular-season league titles over the past decade and made its 18th NCAA Tournament appearance last year.

Wisconsin finished last season with a 10-6-5 overall record and reached the third round of the NCAA Tournament after being eliminated in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. Paula Wilkins, now in her 19th season as head coach at Wisconsin, has achieved eight Big Ten titles and three tournament championships during her tenure.

Northern Iowa ended last season with a 9-6-4 record and was eliminated from the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament by Illinois State. After Bruce Erickson's departure as head coach, Alex Place Thomas was named interim head coach in June.

Milwaukee opened its previous season with a loss to Xavier and holds an all-time record of 15-16-4 in NCAA Division I openers. Notably, their six-goal performance against Northern Iowa in 2021 remains their highest-scoring opening match.

Facing ranked opponents is not new for Milwaukee; Thursday’s match will be their 54th such contest. Their most recent win over a ranked team came against Xavier in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in 2021.

Coach Kevin Boyd has guided Milwaukee to continued success since joining as head coach, including multiple league titles and consistent NCAA appearances. His teams have excelled statistically within conference play and nationally—last season they finished among national leaders in several categories such as scoring offense (11th), points per game (11th), assists per game (11th), total assists (12th), total points (15th), total goals (17th), shots on goal per game (22nd), and shots per game (25th).

Key players from last year's squad graduated, including award winners Lainey Higgins (Horizon League Player of the Year), Kayla Rollins (Offensive Player of the Year), and Parker Donahugh (Goalkeeper of the Year). Kristina Karlof is now Milwaukee’s leading returning scorer among six returning players who started at least 17 games last season.

Since 2017, Milwaukee has one of the top winning percentages nationally among women’s soccer programs at .799—trailing only UCLA, Stanford, Florida State, and North Carolina over that span.

At Engelmann Stadium, Milwaukee has posted a strong home record: since 2015 they are 74-9-7 (.861) overall at home and have lost just four times under Coach Boyd across three seasons.

In Horizon League play specifically, Milwaukee has claimed nine regular-season titles out of ten years and boasts an .915 win percentage over that period.

Last year saw several individual honors for Panthers players: "Lainey Higgins was named Horizon League Player of the Year, Kayla Rollins the Offensive Player of the Year, and Parker Donahugh was selected as the Horizon League Goalkeeper of the Year to highlight the 2024 postseason selections." Six players earned first-team all-league honors—a program best—and two others were also recognized for their performances.

Milwaukee continues its tradition of strong starts within conference play; since joining Horizon League competition in 1994 they have gone 26-3-1 in opening matches.

Fans can watch six out of nine home games this season live via ESPN+, which requires a subscription for access to streaming content such as live events and original programming not available elsewhere on ESPN platforms. More information about ESPN+ subscriptions can be found at https://plus.espn.com/.

After facing Marquette at home later this week, Milwaukee travels to take on Michigan State—ranked No.12—in another non-conference matchup.