Milwaukee Wave kick off 32nd season on Oct. 31

The Milwaukee Wave will open their 32nd season of indoor soccer with a Halloween night road game in Chicago, with their Major Arena Soccer League home opener at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena set for Nov. 14 against the Detroit Waza Flo.

Coach Giuliano Oliviero's team finished 13-7 in the regular season and 15-9 overall last season in the MASL's inaugural season, falling to the Missouri Comets 8-2 in the Central Division final.

Missouri, the Chicago Mustangs and St. Louis Ambush return to the division this season along with the Wave, while the expansion Cedar Rapids Rampage join the Central, part of the 10-team Eastern Conference.

Milwaukee's 18-player roster includes 12 returnees from the 2014-15 season and six newcomers – including defenders Sean Totsch and Drew Ruggles, who play with Wave defender-forward Tony Walls (Wauwatosa East/UW-Green Bay) with the Rochester Rhinos in USL.

Also joining the team are forward Hans Denissen, a 31-year-old Dutch striker who's been with the San Antonio Scorpions, New York Cosmos and Atlanta Silverbacks in the North American Soccer League, and veteran indoor forward Max Ferdinand, who spent the past six seasons with the rival Baltimore Blast.

Milwaukee kicks off the season at the Mustangs at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 31, then has a week off before playing host to Detroit on home turf. Kickoff for the first of the Wave's 10 home matches is set for 6:05 p.m.

Other highlights of Milwaukee's 2015-16 MASL schedule include:

A matchup against Chicago in the Wave's annual New Year Eve Day match, with kickoff set for 3:05 p.m. Dec. 31 at UWM Panther Arena.
Road games against two fellow longtime indoor soccer powers, the San Diego Sockers and the Dallas Sidekicks. Milwaukee faces the Sockers on Jan. 7, one night after taking on the Ontario Fury, and travels to Texas on Feb. 25.
Six of the Wave's final seven games will be at home, with the Feb. 27 match against expansion Hartford City FC wrapping up the 20-game regular season.

Milwaukee plays host to Cedar Rapids in its lone preseason exhibition at 10 a.m. Thursday at UWM Panther Arena. Tickets are $3 for the matinee match. The Wave averaged 2,961 fans per home game last season, their lowest average attendance since the 1986-87 season.

2015-16 MILWAUKEE WAVE ROSTER

No.	Player	Pos.	Birthdate	Hometown
0	Nick Vorberg	GK	Feb. 10, 1975	Grants Pass, Ore.
1	Marcel Feenstra	GK	June 4, 1981	Den Helder, Netherlands
2	Tenzin Rampa	F	Dec. 17, 1985	Madison (West HS)
3	Philip Suprise	D	Dec. 31, 1990	Milwaukee (Pius HS)
8	Bato Radoncic	F	Aug. 28, 1980	Berane, Montengro
9	Emil Ekstrom	M	N/A	Enköping, Sweden
12	Pablo Da Silva	M	Aug. 29, 1980	Florianopolis, Brazil
14	Sean Totsch	D	Sept. 16, 1991	Oswego, Ill.
15	Tony Walls	D	Jan. 16, 1990	Milwaukee (Wauwatosa East HS)
16	Max Ferdinand	M	Nov. 4, 1986	Haiti/Reading, Pa.
17	Hans Denissen	M	March 9, 1984	Tilburg, Netherlands
18	Stefan St. Louis	F	Oct. 10, 1987	Chaguana, Trinidad and Tobago
20	Marcelo Fontana	M	Aug. 22, 1973	Misiones, Argentina
20	Guilherme Veiga	D	April 21, 1984	Porto Alegre, Brazil
24	Drew Ruggles	D	July 28, 1992	Manassas, Va.
26	Ian Bennett	M	Aug. 27, 1983	Hamilton, Ontario
28	Jonathan Greenfield	D	Feb. 18, 1982	Cape Town, South Africa
77	Marcio Leite	M	Aug. 5, 1984	Sergipe, Brazil

Coach: Giuliano Oliviero, second season (15-9).
Player/assistant: Nick Vorberg.

2015-16 MILWAUKEE WAVE SCHEDULE

Date	Opponent	Time
Oct. 15	Cedar Rapids Rampage (exh)	10 a.m.
Oct. 31	at Chicago Mustangs	7:35 p.m.
Nov. 14	Detroit Waza Flo	6:05 p.m.
Nov. 21	Cedar Rapids Rampage	6:05 p.m.
Nov. 28	at Detroit Waza Flo	7:05 p.m.
Dec. 4	at Missouri Comets	7:05 p.m.
Dec. 6	St. Louis Ambush	2:05 p.m.
Dec. 11	at Chicago Mustangs	7:35 p.m.
Dec. 12	at Cedar Rapids Rampage	3:05 p.m.
Dec. 27	at St. Louis Ambush	5:35 p.m.
Dec. 31	Chicago Mustangs	3:05 p.m.
Jan. 2	at Missouri Comets	7:05 p.m.
Jan. 6	at Ontario Fury	7:05 p.m.
Jan. 7	at San Diego Sockers	7:05 p.m.
Jan. 9	St. Louis Ambush	6:05 p.m.
Jan. 30	Cedar Rapids Rampage	7:35 p.m.
Jan. 31	Syracuse Silver Knights	2:05 p.m.
Feb. 14	Missouri Comets	2:05 p.m.
Feb. 21	Chicago Mustangs	2:05 p.m.
Feb. 25	at Dallas Sidekicks	7:35 p.m.
Feb. 27	Hartford City FC	6:05 p.m.

Subject to change. Home games at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena

Wisconsin Soccer Central

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