EAU CLAIRE, Wis. - The top-seed UW-Eau Claire women's soccer team defeated second-seed UW-Stevens Point today 1-0 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Tournament Championship to win its third consecutive WIAC Championship and earn an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.

This is the third WIAC Championship in school history and will result in the third NCAA Tournament appearance in school history. The 15th ranked Blugolds also defended the WIAC regular season title this season and with today's win it has successfully defended both its WIAC regular season and tournament crowns.

This is the first time the Pointers and Blugolds have faced off for the championship at Eau Claire. The match was the 11th time Eau Claire faced off for a conference championship in school history. The Blugolds' season record stands at 18-1-2 while the Pointer season mark is 16-4-1.

Jamie Schiesel (Fr.- Plymouth, MN/Armstrong) scored the only goal of the match at the 75:39 mark. Allison Muer (Jr.- Minneapolis, MN/South) had the assist on the goal. Schiesel who has six goals on the season, scored her second goal of the WIAC tournament to give the Blugolds the 1-0 win over Stevens Point today.

The Blugolds stayed with their normal goalie procedure and started Liz Weirick (Sr.- Kenosha, WI/Tremper) who had three saves in the first half and allowed no goals. Allie Rivard (Jr.- Plymouth, MN/Wayzata) took the net in the second half and had one save and allowed no goals.

Rivard, the winning goalie, could not stop smiling as she congratulated her teammates and coaches. "This is an amazing feeling," she said. "But we all know we have to focus and continue to take it one game at a time."

Eau Claire had 10 shots in the match with five in each half. Stevens Point also split its eight shots evenly in the two halves. Meredith DeCaluwe (Sr.- Naperville, IL/Central) had five saves for the Pointers and allowed one goal.

The Blugolds, with today's shutout win over Stevens Point moves one game closer to the school record of 15 shutouts in a season. The record which was set by last year's squad stands at 15 shutouts.

The Blugolds reached the championship by defeating No. 8 seed UW-Platteville 3-0 in quarterfinal play and No. 4 seed UW-La Crosse 5-1 in a semifinal. The Blugolds' defense only allowed Platteville three shots in the entire match while the offense put up 29 shots. Against La Crosse the Blugolds' offense saw five different players score and the defense held the Eagles to one goal.

Stevens Point advanced to the WIAC title game with a 6-1 quarterfinal win over seventh-seeded UW-River Falls and a 3-2 semifinal victory over third-seeded UW-Whitewater. Amanda Prawat (Jr.- Oregon, WI) scored four goals for the Pointers in its quarterfinal match against River Falls. Prawat added another two goals to her play-off resume against UW-Whitewater. Prawat finished the season with 24 goals, six of which came in the WIAC Tournament.

Head Coach Sean Yengo said the Blugolds will stick with their motto of "one more game" and continue to work hard.

"It was a clean, hard fought game," Yengo said. "It was a great effort by both teams and our goal now is to win and advance, one game at a time."

Eau Claire will now compete as one of 60 teams in the NCAA Division III Tournament. The brackets will be announced Monday and the first round runs from November 9th to the 11th.

Eau Claire-Stevens Point Box Score

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