Wisconsin Soccer Central

Two players expected to be among the top men's college soccer players in the country this fall play for teams from Milwaukee.

UW-Milwaukee senior midfielder Laurie Bell was named to the first team of the TopDrawerSoccer.com Men's College Preseason Best XI, while Marquette junior defender Axel Sjoberg made the second team.

Bell is coming off a huge junior season: He was named a first-team All-American by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America after earning the Horizon League Player of the Year and Offensive Player of the Year awards.

A native of Poynton, England, Bell finished the season with 13 goals and four assists in 20 appearances (all starts) in helping lead the Panthers to the Horizon tournament title and their first NCAA tournament berth since 2005.

Sjoberg, meanwhile, was an All-Big East Conference pick as the Golden Eagles won the Big East tournament and advanced to the third round of the NCAA tournament. The 6-foot-7 center back from Stockholm, Sweden, had two goals and three assists and has career totals of 11 goals and six assists in 45 appearances (all starts).

• UW-Milwaukee ranked 41st among NCAA Division I men's teams in attendance last fall with an average crowd of 866. The University of Wisconsin's 805 average ranked 45th.
• Melissa Hanson resigned Friday after six seasons as UW-Superior women's coach. Hanson, who finished her college career playing soccer and softball for the Yellowjackets after transferring from Minnesota-Morris, compiled a 29-86-3 overall record.  She left the school to accept a position as a physical education teacher in the Amery School District. UW-Superior was 4-15-1 overall and 0-8-0 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference last season.
• Sean Steele (Oshkosh West/UW-Oshkosh) recently stepped down after three seasons as men's and women's coach at Division III Nebraska Wesleyan and was named an assistant in the women's program at Division I Fresno State. Steele recorded a 20-26-9 record with the Nebraska Wesleyan women and went 18-32-5 with the men's team.
• Sarah Tompkins (Franklin) was named a graduate assistant at Division II Carson-Newman (Tenn.), where she played the first two seasons of her college career. The goalkeeper transferred to Division I Tennessee-Martin for her final two seasons.
• Former Marian standout Jenn (Stolte) Votja will be one of four former Sabres athletes inducted into the school's Hall of Fame on Oct. 4. Stolte ranks second in the Marian record book with 58 goals and third with 30 assists, and was the first four-time All-Lake Michigan Conference selection in program history. Her 28 goals, nine game-winning goals and 67 points in 1998 remain Sabres season standards.
• The UW-Platteville Athletic Hall of Fame's Class of 2014 will feature a pair of former soccer standouts from the 1990s. Kristin Haase was a three-time all-conference selection for the Pioneers and is tied for second in program history with 34 goals and 80 points – she scored five goals against Marian on Sept. 7, 1995, and is one of only five players in WIAC history to score five goals or more in a match. Brian Hagen (Racine Lutheran), meanwhile, is tied for fourth in Platteville men's history with 51 goals and tied for sixth in assists with 29. He concluded his career with a huge senior season, recording 22 goals and nine assists in 1998. Haase and Hagen will be joined by three others in a Hall of Fame ceremony on Dec. 6.