Nov. 5, 1999

Indianapolis - The UWM women's soccer team defeated No. 2 seeded Butler, 4-1, in the semifinals of the MCC Championship, on Friday.

Third-seed UWM (11-8-2) advances to face No. 1 Wright State (11-8-0) in the MCC finals on Sunday. The Raiders were shutout by UWM, 2-0, at Uihlein Soccer Park in September. The winner of Sunday's game earns an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Fanta Cooper, who was named MCC Player of the Year a day earlier, sparked the UWM offense with a pair of goals and an assist. Cooper now has three goals in the tournament, she had scored only one goal previous to the tournament.

"It was awesome," said UWM coach Michael Moynihan. "Our defending in the midfield was much more disciplined, and our energy was sky high."

UWM senior defender Joanne Wilde scored her second career goal early in the first half after a corner kick.

Butler tied the game midway through the second half, but UWM answered just 20 seconds later when Cooper assisted on a goal by Julie Ruma.

"It was a play that we worked on all day yesterday, but we couldn't get the angles down. Today, we were able to adjust," said Moynihan.

Cooper scored two second half goals to seal the win. Erin Blaedow and Kari Krzykowski provided the assists.

The win marked the second time in two days the UWM avenged a regular-season loss. UWGB defeated UWM in the regular season, but fell yesterday to the Panthers, 3-0. Butler defeated UWM last month.