MILWAUKEE – Adam Hess and the Milwaukee Panther Soccer Club played in the NIRSA National Soccer Championships on Nov. 19-21.

The Panthers qualified for the tournament after finishing the season with an undefeated 11-0-1 record.

The only blemish was a 1-1 tie against cross-town rival Marquette University.
The undefeated record placed the Panthers second to Ohio State University in the regional power rankings, giving them the at-large bid to nationals.

From the Midwest Region, national tournament bids went to Ohio State University, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the University of Michigan, the University of Illinois, and Michigan State University.

The National Tournament consisted of 24 teams from across the country.  The first round of the tournament consisted of eight pools of three teams, where the top two teams from each pool advance.

The Panthers began pool play with the University of Colorado.

With the game looking like it was going to finish in a 1-1 tie, Colorado was able to capitalize on a last minute corner kick in stoppage time to hand the Panthers a 2-1 loss.

The second game for the Panthers was a must win against the University of Missouri.  With the offense struggling to get many scoring opportunities, Milwaukee was handed a 2-0 loss, knocking them out of National Championship contention, and into the consolation bracket.
In the consolation bracket, the Panthers were able to defeat Johns Hopkins University by a score of 3-2.

Milwaukee then took on Arizona State University, who had defeated the University of Delaware by a score of 2-1.

The Panthers finally began to play with the fire that had been missing since the regular season and were able to defeat Arizona State 5-0.

The victory placed the Panthers in the consolation final, where they took on Navy.

Milwaukee was able to finish their National Tournament with a 3-2 victory over Navy, placing them 17th in the country.