MU Prepped For Milwaukee Cup

MILWAUKEE – The Marquette University men's soccer team travels across town to take on the University of Milwaukee Panthers at Englemann Stadium on Tuesday, Sept. 17 at 7 p.m.

MU bounced back from a 2-1 loss on the road against South Florida with an explosive, 3-1 victory on Friday night against Northern Illinois. After trailing 1-0 early on, MU responded with three first half goals, including the first two of the season for Josh Coan.

The Golden Eagles and Panthers will meet for the 47th time on Tuesday evening. 14th-year head coach Louis Bennett's teams are 1-2-2 against UWM in the past five matchups. If MU is able to emerge victoriously, it will be the team's first win at Engelmann Stadium since 2008.

STATS/STREAM:
Live stats will be available on MKEPanthers.com and live streaming will be available on ESPN+ (subscription only).

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

The Golden Eagles return 21 of the teams 26 goals (80.8 percent) from last year.
Connor Alba (2nd Team), Luka Prpa (1st Team), Patrick Seagrist (1st Team) and Lukas Sunesson (Freshman Team) all return after earning All-BIG EAST honors in 2018.
Freshman goalkeeper Jackson Weyman was named BIG EAST Freshman of the Week on Sept. 2 after posting a 0.42 GAA in his first two games. He's 2-1-1 on the year with an .818 save percentage.
Josh Coan was named to the BIG EAST Honor Roll this week after tallying a career-high five points (two goals, one assist) in Friday night's win over NIU.
Connor Alba notched his second goal of the season Friday. Alba is tied for the team lead with five points.
Three-time all-conference midfielder Luka Prpa played 49 minutes against USF on Sept. 6 in his return from a foot injury. It was his first ever game played for MU that he didn't start.
Seven of MU's nine BIG EAST matches in 2019 will be streamed on the BIG EAST Digital Network.
Five of the Golden Eagles' 17 games are against opponents either ranked or receiving votes in the NCAA's preseason top-25 poll. Georgetown (No. 5), Xavier (No. 11) and St. John's (No. 19) are ranked while and Creighton (17) and UC Davis (1) are receiving votes.

OPPONENT FORM:
Milwaukee (3-2-0, 1-0-0 Horizon)
The University of Milwaukee Panthers are led by eighth-year head coachh Kris Kelderman, who came to Milwaukee after serving one year as the head coach at Green Bay in addition to multiple years as an assistant coach in the MLS and at George Mason. In his seven years at the helm of UWM, Kelderman led the team to one NCAA tournament appearance (2013). The Panthers have also won at least eight games in each of the past three seasons.

Last season, the Panthers finished the year with a 9-7-3 (3-4-1 Horizon) record, including a 4-3-1 mark at Engelmann Stadium. Kelderman and his team battled their way to the Horizon League tournament semifinals before ending the season with a loss to No. 18 Wright State in penalty kicks.

As a team, UWM brings back 19 of the 24 goals (79.2 percent) of the goals they scored last season. Leading scorer Evan Conway, who scored a team-high seven goals and dished out five assists (also a team-best), returns for his senior year as a Panther. UWM also returns four other players who scored at least two goals in 2018.

SERIES HISTORY:
Marquette and Milwaukee have met every year since 1973. This year's edition of the Milwaukee Cup will be the 47th annual meeting between the crosstown rivals. The Panthers lead the overall series, 30-11-5.

In the last 10 meetings, MU has won three times, UWM has won five times, and they've tied twice. UWM won last year's meeting 2-1 at Valley Fields. The Golden Eagles last win in the series was in 2014, when they took a 2-0 victory at home. MU's last win at Engelmann Stadium came on Oct. 22, 2008 (2-0).

KEY POINTS:
COAN LEADS THE WAY IN WIN OVER NIU: Senior midfielder Josh Coan came into Friday's game against NIU without any points on the season. He quickly changed that, notching career-highs in points (5) and goals (2) in a game. He had a hand in all three goals, scoring two off set pieces and assisting on Connor Alba's goal in the 31st minute. He's now tied for the team lead with five points in 2019.

ALBA CONTINUES STRONG PLAY: Senior midfielder Connor Alba has been off to a hot start this season. He netted goals in MU's final two exhibitions and started off the regular season by scoring on a penalty kick and dishing out the game-winning assist in double overtime off a free kick. The Waukesha, Wisconsin, native has accumulated 35 points in his career and is tied for the team in 2019 with five points. He scored his second goal of the season to put MU ahead for good against NIU (Sept. 13).

SENIOR LEADERSHIP FROM SEAGRIST ANCHORS BACK LINE: Senior defender Patrick Seagrist has been as dependable as it gets in the first four games of the 2019 season. He's one of two field players to have been on the pitch for all 397 minutes of action (Manuel Cukaj is the other). After tallying 12 points in his junior year on the way to all-conference honors, he leads the team with two assists this season.

BENNETT ROTATES STARTING LINEUP: MU has used four different starting lineups in its first four games of the 2019 campaign. 14 different field players have started games for Bennett's squad. Alba, Cukaj, Mirsberger, Seagrist, Wegner and Weyman are the six players who have started in every game.

TICKETS:
Tickets for all regular season home games are on sale. Single game tickets are priced at $5 while groups of fifteen-or-more are $2 per person. Season tickets are $45 and include admission to all games as well as an exclusive Marquette Soccer scarf.

Single game and season tickets are available online. For groups, call the ticket office at 414-288-4668.

UP NEXT:
The Golden Eagles are back home to kick off BIG EAST play on Friday, Sept. 20 against Creighton. The match will begin at 7:35 p.m. in the second game of a doubleheader with the MU women's team.

Keep up with the Marquette men's soccer program through social media by following on Twitter (@MarquetteSoccer) and Instagram (@MarquetteSoccer) and `liking' on Facebook (/MarquetteSoccer).