Wisconsin Soccer Central

Allison DeGroot (Waukesha West/Marquette) was named UW-Superior women's soccer coach recently, taking over the Yellowjackets after Morgan MacLean resigned from the position in January.

Superior finished 1-16-0 overall and 1-7-0 in its second season in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference last fall, and MacLean recorded a 6-42-2 overall record in his three seasons at the helm.

"The women's soccer program has the ability to compete at the highest level within the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference," DeGroot said in a news release. "I'm excited to work with these players and help this program reach its potential."

The 29-year-old DeGroot most recently served as an assistant at Augsburg (Minn.) for the past five seasons, helping the Auggies earn two NCAA Division III tournament berths and annually contend for the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title. She also has worked with Minnesota's Fusion SC (2014 to '17) and the Minnesota Thunder Academy (2010 to '14) after starting her coaching career with the Waukesha South High School girls program in 2009.

"We are very excited to have Allison joining Yellowjacket Athletics and taking over our women's soccer program," Superior interim athletic director Nick Bursik said. "She has a proven coaching track record and her connections at the high school and club levels in both Minnesota and Wisconsin are going to benefit our women's soccer program, our athletics department, and the university greatly."

• The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel this week approved a change to the penalty for denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity. Starting this fall, referees will have the discretion to issue either a yellow card or a red card when a player makes a "legitimate attempt" to play the ball when denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity and committing a direct free kick offense in the penalty area. A penalty kick will still be awarded, but the offending player no longer will be issued an automatic red card. The panel also approved a rule change that allows the ball to be kicked in any direction on a kickoff; that rule was changed by the International Football Association Board and FIFA last year.