The Valparaiso women’s soccer team matched a program record with their eighth straight victory and extended its unbeaten streak to 14 matches as the Crusaders downed Milwaukee Wednesday evening at Brown Field, 1-0.  The win over the Panthers was the first in program history for Valpo and keeps the Crusaders atop the Horizon League table.

With their eighth straight win, the Crusaders matched the mark of the 2006 squad, which also captured eight consecutive victories on their way to a 12-win campaign.  Valpo’s unbeaten streak now has spanned a full two months, as its last loss came on August 22 in the season opener against Belmont.

Perhaps most important is the fact that Valpo stayed perfect in Horizon League play with the win.  The Crusaders are now 6-0-0 with two games to go in the league slate, keeping their pace three points ahead of Detroit, which won on Wednesday as well.  Valpo has secured a top-two seed for the Horizon League Championship, and with a win on Saturday against the Titans would clinch the outright regular season crown, while a draw would secure a share of the title.

It took the Crusaders less than 16 minutes to find the game’s lone goal, and as it has so often recently, it came off the foot of sophomore April Cronin (Glenview, Ill./Glenbrook South).  Cronin intercepted a Panther pass across the back line in the middle of the field, leaving her one-on-one with Milwaukee goalie Paige Lincicum in the box.  The sophomore calmly beat Lincicum to the near side from ten yards out for the eventual match-winner.  For Cronin, it is her sixth goal in the last eight games, while the sophomore also leads the league in league-only play with four goals.

From there, it was just a matter of the Crusaders keeping the Panthers off the board, and other than an early second-half opportunity where a potential Milwaukee goal was waved off due to a foul, Valpo did just that.  The Crusader defense surrendered just three shot attempts to the Panthers, none of which were on goal as Sydney Galvez-Daley (Chicago, Ill./Fenwick [Creighton]) didn’t need to make a save in earning her ninth clean sheet of the season.  Valpo ended the match with ten shots, three of which were on goal as Lincicum made two saves.

“I felt like in the first half, we were able to utilize the width of the field to our advantage,” said Crusader head coach John Marovich.  “I thought our whole group did a nice job connecting and getting the ball out wide.  We knew with Milwaukee fighting to be in the tournament, they would come out in the second half and try to create a goal any way possible.  We had to be very good at clearances, seeing and defending their attackers, so we made the decision to not go out and press too much for a second goal and were able to withstand their pressure.  Our players stepped up and found a way to get the win tonight, which was huge, and just continued to do what we do.”

Valparaiso (10-1-4, 6-0-0) takes on Detroit at 2 p.m. on Saturday afternoon in a bid to clinch the league regular season title.  The game can be heard live online through ValpoAthletics.com, which will also have a link for live stats.