The Penguins wrap up the 2019 regular season on Friday November 1, as they travel to Milwaukee to take on the Horizon League leading Panthers at 8 p.m. from Engelmann Stadium.
The game will live streamed on ESPN+ with live stats available through links on YSUsports.com.
Looking At The Opponents
Milwaukee: The Panthers enter Friday's match with an overall record of 14-1-1 and 7-0-1 mark in the Horizon League after drawing 0-0 with Oakland last time out. Milwaukee clinched its fifth consecutive outright Horizon League regular season title and extended its unbeaten streak in regular season league games to 32 (29-0-3) in a row.
Offensively the Panthers are led by Gaby Schwartz (20 points on 6G/8A), Mackenzie Schill (15 points on 6G/3A) and Haley Johnson (14 points on 5G/4A). Elaina LaMacchia has been one of the Horizon League's top goalkeepers this season being named the Defensive Player of the Week three times. She has a league leading .26 goals against average and .932 save percentage to go along with seven shutouts, the second most among Horizon League goalkeepers.
Friday's match will be the 19th meeting between the programs in a series that dates back to 2001. Milwaukee owns the advantage in the all-time series with record of 16-2, which includes wins in the previous four meetings. The Penguins most recent victory came in a thrilling 3-2 double overtime win in 2014.
Milwaukee is under the direction of fifth year head coach Troy Fabiano.
Last Time Out
The Penguins split a pair of league games last week to improve to 4-12-1 overall and 2-6 in the Horizon League. The Guins fell to Wright State 2-1 on October 23 before bouncing back with a 1-0 win over Detroit Mercy on October 27.
In the loss at Wright State, freshman forward Addie Roman scored her third goal of the season while Marcella Sizer registered her second assist.
The Penguins defeated Detorit Mercy on a goal from Regan LaVigna in the third minute of the match. The win was the first time the Penguins defeated the Titans since 2015 and marked just the second victory over Detroit Mercy in program history.
The Penguins picked up their second Horizon League victory of the season which is the most since 2015 when the squad finished 2-7 in the league.
LaVigna Nets First Collegiate Goal
With the Penguins on the attack early against Detroit Mercy, Marcella Sizer centered a ball to Abriana Rondin just outside the box before she swung a pass to LaVigna who was able a fire a strike past the goalkeeper just a two minutes and four seconds into the match. LaVigna's goal was the first of her collegiate career.
Sizer Leads Offensive Attack
Of late, Marcella Sizer is doing more than just finding the back of the net as she picked up a pair of assists in the Penguins' two games last week. Against Wright State, Sizer was credited with an assist on a goal from Addie Roman before adding another on Regan LaVigna's goal against Detroit Mercy.
Sizer leads the Penguins with offense with 13 points on five goals and three assists. Her goals came against Fort Wayne (8/23) on a game-winner, a penalty kick against St. Bonaventure (8/25), a pair in the 3-2 victory over St. Francis (Pa.) (9/8) and a header versus Green Bay (10/12).
Among the Horizon League freshman ranks, Sizer is second with her five goals and tied with IUPUI Maya Lacognato and Wright State's Jordyne Helinski for points (13). Sizer's five goals ranks tied for eighth among all goal scorers in the league.
McEachern, Jivraj Split Time In Net
Junior Kate McEachern and sophomore Zeeyana Jivraj have each been given the opportunity to start for the Penguins through the first 17 games this season. Jivraj made starts in the first two contests and against Kent State while McEachern has started 13 of the last 14 matches.
McEachern has recorded 91 saves over the course of 14 matches, including a career-high 14 save performance against Eastern Michigan on September 13. McEachern continues to lead Horizon League goalkeepers in saves and has the most saves per game with a 6.50 average. Nationally, she ranks tied for 29th among goalkeepers with her 91 total saves.
After posting a shutout against Detorit Mercy last weekend, McEachen moved into a tie for second for the most shutouts in program history (6). McEachern will have one more opportunity to tie the record of seven set by Mariah Snyder (2006-09) on Friday when the Penguins battle Milwaukee.
Jivraj has tallied 18 saves total, including a nine save performance in a winning effort against Purdue Fort Wayne on August 23. She has a 2.67 goals against average to go along with a .692 save percentage.
Youth Movement
With only seven upperclassman on the roster, Head Coach Brian Shrum has turned to his talented group of freshman to play a significant number of minutes this season. Shrum has used a starting lineup that features seven freshman on nine occasions.
The most recent installment of the seven freshman starting lineup came last week in games versus Wright State (10/23) and Detroit Mercy (10/28). The seven other instances came against St. Bonaventure (8/25), at St. Francis (Pa.) (9/8), at Oakland (9/20), versus IUPUI (9/28), at Cleveland State (10/2), against Northern Kentucky (10/6) and versus Green Bay (10/2).
The freshman class has now accounted for 11 of the 12 Penguins' goals this season. Marcella Sizer leads the way with five goals, Addie Roman now has three while Abriana Rondin, Regan LaVigna and Lily Welch have each found the back of the net. LaVigna also has team-high four assists while Sizer is up to three.
The Lone Senior
Larsen Murvin played her final home game last weekend and will finish out her career on Friday against Milwaukee. For her career, she has seen action in 54 games while also making 32 starts. Murvin record three assists during her time at YSU, with two coming during her freshman year and one last season as a junior.
During her senior campaign, Murvin has seen significant playing time making starts in 14 of the 15 matches she played in. Murvin nearly scored her first collegiate goal against Akron (9/6) when her shot hit the cross bar in the 65th minute.
LaVigna Ties Freshman Assist Record
Regan LaVigna set up to take a corner kick in the 84th minute during the match against Green Bay (10/12) with the Penguins still looking to get on the scoreboard. She proceeded to place the ball in a perfect position inside the box where Marcella Sizer was able to head it into the back of the net.
LaVigna collected her fourth assist of the season, tying the freshman assist record set by Chantel Groom (2001) and Katie Hohman (2012). LaVigna will have just one more chances to break the record when the Penguins take on Milwaukee on Friday.
