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 The Women's Premier Soccer League Midwest Conference has been pretty good recently – the division has sent teams to the national semifinals twice in the past three years, including the FC Milwaukee Nationals last season.
Now the conference is getting even stronger.
The Chicago Red Stars, who withdrew from Women's Professional Soccer and have hopes of returning to the country's top league next year, are one of two new teams in the North Division of the WPSL Midwest.
"Having the Red Stars come down adds another really good club," FC Milwaukee coach Christian Lavers said. "There's nobody where you're going to look at it and say, 'Oh, this is an easy game.' Every team is going to be a tough game – and that's what we want."
While most of the players who were with the Red Stars last season have moved on, their roster is expected to include several former WPS players – including defender Elise Weber (UW). Midfielder Kara Kabellis (UW), who played for the Chicago Red Eleven in the USL W-League and is an assistant at NCAA Division II Lewis, also is on the roster. Both are Chicago-area natives.
Minnesota Kings FC is the other new team in the North and certainly should be a talented side considering it is the only such team in the Twin Cities. That makes for a six-team league as KUFC Pursuit, which lost all eight of its matches last year, did not to return.
"The number of teams is right, I think, for the time period," Lavers said. "Ten games from June 1 to mid-July is about as many games as you would want to play before you start getting a crowded calendar. And when you have good teams and good players, that really is kind of the highest number that you would want."
Lavers' team went 7-1-0 to win the North in 2010, then claimed the Midwest title and beat Florida's FSA Freedom to advance to the Final Four in its first year in the WPSL.
"We have most of the team returning from last year," said Lavers, whose team lost to eventual champion Boston Aztec 2-1 in the semifinals and tied Oklahoma Alliance 2-2 in the third-place match to finish 9-2-1 overall.
Leading FC Milwaukee's returnees is the forward duo of UW-Milwaukee's Sarah Hagen (Appleton North) and UW's Laurie Nosbusch (Mequon Homestead). Hagen was the Midwest Conference Player of the Year and an All-WPSL selection in 2010, while Nosbusch made the all-conference first team and was a second-team pick on the league honor squad.
Lavers anticipated 70 to 80 percent of what he's expecting to be a 25-player roster will be veterans from last year's team. He'll again try to have a balance of college players and players from the Nationals' successful youth teams.
"I think last year was a really good experience," he said. "I think for the college players it was a chance to get better. I think that helped them going into the fall and word spread about that, and we got even more interest this year than last year from collegiate players because of that. And for the youth players, that also was a tremendous experience, to play with older players and get a chance to play for a national championship. So getting those players back involved was not a challenge.
"You can't ever say, 'OK, we're planning on going back to the national semifinals.' But I think that experience will help us, and I think we'll be a better team this year."
The Madison 56ers have several top young players back for their second season: Iowa midfielder Alex Melin (Verona), Marquette midfielder Taylor Madigan (Waunakee) and midfielder-defender Kristyn Gawin (Middleton), who was an All-Midwest pick in 2010.
"It's always sort of shifting," 56ers coach John Reddan said of the roster. "Some good players returning, some key kids returning."
Veteran defender Mara Wyttenbach (UW), who along with Gawin was part of the MYSC Lady Blues team that advanced to the WPSL semifinals in 2008, also is back. "(She) will be playing again, really showing people what it's like to continue to love the game and be fit while having a family," Reddan said of Wyttenbach.
Among the newcomers for Madison are UW goalkeeper Michele Dalton and midfielder Marta Wangard, a 2012 UW recruit from Brookfield who plays at IMG Academy in Florida. Dalton was a WPSL All-Pacific Conference selection and the conference Goalkeeper of the Year in 2009 playing for San Diego United.
"We're excited to get things going," said Reddan, whose team finished fourth in the North with a 2-5-1 mark last year.
2011 FC MILWAUKEE NATIONALS SCHEDULE
Sunday, June 5: at Iowa Rush, 11 a.m.
Tuesday, June 7: at Chicago Eclipse Select, 6 p.m.
Saturday, June 11: Iowa Rush, 7 p.m.
Sunday, June 12: Minnesota Kings FC, 4 p.m.
Thursday, June 16: at Chicago Red Stars, 4:30 p.m.
Sunday, June 19: at Minnesota Kings FC, 1 p.m.
Thursday, June 30: Chicago Red Stars, 7 p.m.
Thursday, July 7: Chicago Eclipse Select, 7 p.m.
Sunday, July 10: at Madison 56ers, 5 p.m.
Wednesday, July 13: Madison 56ers, 7 p.m.
Subject to change
Home matches at FC Milwaukee Fields, Germantown
2011 MADISON 56ERS SCHEDULE
Saturday, June 11: Minnesota Kings FC, 1:30 p.m.
Sunday, June 12: Iowa Rush, 2 p.m.
Thursday, June 16: at Chicago Eclipse Select, 6:30 p.m.
Monday, June 20: Chicago Eclipse Select, 7 p.m.
Wednesday, June 22: Chicago Red Stars, 6 p.m.
Saturday, June 25: at Minnesota Kings FC, 1:30 p.m.
Sunday, June 26: at Iowa Rush, 3 p.m.
Wednesday, June 29: at Chicago Red Stars, 6 p.m.
Sunday, July 10: FC Milwaukee Nationals, 5 p.m.
Wednesday, July 13: at FC Milwaukee Nationals, 7 p.m.
Subject to change
Home matches at Breese Stevens Field
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