The Butler swim team took second place in a meet at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis on Saturday.

The Bulldogs placed ahead of Rose Hulman and behind host IUPUI.

Freshman Lauren Scotti won the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:03.00 a week after winning Horizon League Swimmer of the Week honors.

Strong performances were also turned in by sophomore Rosalie Fidanze and freshman Hannah Somerville, who both posted season-best times.

Fidanze had a second-place time of 1:10.42 in the 100 breastroke, while Somerville’s time of 2:21.21 in the 200 IM was also good for

Photo courtesy of Butler Athletics

second place.

Somerville also posted a second-place finish in the 100 backstroke, finishing less than a second behind race-winner Scotti.

“I think we’re kind of in a transitional period of coming off some pretty hard training,” head coach Maurice Stewart said.

The Bulldogs’ next meet, the Horizon League Championships, will be their last of the season. The four-day event will be held Feb. 22-25 in Brown Deer, Wis.

“We’ll be doing a lot of training physically and mentally preparing for the championships,” Stewart said. “I feel we can have a solid performance.”

Despite a career-best eight saves from sophomore goalkeeper Julie Burton and a stonewall defense, the Butler women’s soccer team saw its season come to an end with a 1-0 loss to No. 15 Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the semifinals of the Horizon League Soccer Championships.

“We played extremely well,” sophomore Ali Backscheider said. “It didn’t work out in our favor, but we’re happy with how we played.”

Milwaukee junior midfielder Helen Steinhauser scored the lone goal of the match in the 35th minute, and it was enough to let the Panthers (18-2-0, 8-0-0) slip by with the win.

On the goal-scoring play, freshman midfielder Kelsey Holbert ran the ball into the box and then found Steinhauser at the near post. Steinhauser took advantage, finding the back of the net with a one-touch shot.

The Bulldogs (8-10-2, 3-5-0) shut down the Panthers’ attack in the second half but were not able to generate an effective offensive effort.

Photo by Maria Porter

By the end of the match, Milwaukee held a 17-6 advantage in shots and had seven corner kicks to Butler’s one.

Freshman forward Elise Kotsakis recorded Butler’s lone shot on goal.

“We have to score to win, and we didn’t score,” Backscheider said.

Despite the loss, the Bulldogs were able to silence Milwaukee All-American forward Sarah Hagen throughout the match. Hagen is second in the nation with 24 goals.

“We shut her down and took her out of the game,” junior forward Katie Griswold said. “[Sophomore midfielder] Anna [Ventimiglia] completely dominated her.”

The Bulldogs also had three fewer fouls and seven more saves than the Panthers.

With the season over, the Bulldogs already are looking forward to next fall.

“We played really well with just one senior, and that just shows what kind of team we’re going to have next year,” Griswold said.

In a game for Butler’s history books, the women’s soccer team came back from a 2-0 deficit to beat Valparaiso and move on in the Horizon League tournament.

The game, played Tuesday in Valparaiso, featured 20 minutes of extra play and eight rounds of penalty kicks.

In the first 40 minutes, offense was the theme of the game, with all four goals coming in the first half.

Junior Rachel Scott scored on a rebound off a shot by fellow junior Katie Griswold, and sophomore Olivia Colosimo scored on a free kick.

After a defensive second half that featured several saves from Bulldog goalkeeper Julie Burton, the game went to overtime.

After no offensive action in two overtimes, the game went to a shootout, which Butler won by a count of 5-4.

Valparaiso had two opportunities to win in PKs, but both were shut down.

The match featured 37 shots and 37 fouls between the two teams.

Burton had seven saves in the marathon of a match.

Bundled-up fans came out to the Butler Bowl on Oct. 28 for the team’s last conference match against Loyola.

They watched the Bulldogs (8-9-1, 3-5) work to come back from a 2-0 first- half deficit.

In the 10th minute, Rambler freshman defenseman Valerie Gonyo headed a Loyola free kick into the net to put them up 1-0.

“You fall behind early, the game changes, and you have to chase it a little bit,” Butler coach Tari St. John said.

Loyola tallied another goal just less than 28 minutes later when junior forward Ana Michelini broke away on a run and chipped the ball over Burton.

“We put the effort in, we were connected, and I think we played really well with each other,” freshman foward Elise Kotsakis said. “We just couldn’t get it in the back of the net.”

Kotsakis, who had a career-high nine shots during the match, changed that in the 74th minute, scoring the only goal of the second half.

The goal-scoring play started with a pass from  Griswold to Kotsakis, who buried the ball in the net from 12 yards out.

Butler’s offense could not find the net again, and the Bulldogs finished the regular season with a sub-.500 record.

By the end of the match, Butler had outshot Loyola 18-8 and had eight shots on goal to the Ramblers’ six.

“We always like to win just for pride,” Burton said. “I think it’s good that we can come back from two goals and make those changes.”

The Bulldogs next play on Nov. 4 against Horizon League regular-season champion Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the semifinal round of the conference tournament.

The Panthers (16-2-0, 8-0-0) defeated the Bulldogs 4-1 in a match earlier this season.

Another year, another Horizon League title for both the Butler men’s and women’s cross country teams.

Both Bulldog squads raced in Cleveland for a chance at their respective conference championships on Saturday.

The Butler men won 13 consecutive titles heading into the race, while the Butler women were looking for their ninth title in the last 10 seasons.

The men took home their 14th title in as many seasons with a dominating 37-point victory over second place Loyola.

Sophomore Callum Hawkins continued his impressive season by taking first place honors with a time of 25:43.

Butler took five of the top 10 spots, including first, second and third place, to secure the victory.

Sophomore Ross Clarke ran a 26:06, and freshman Tom Curr ran a 26:10, taking second and third, respectively.

Clarke was coming off a first place finish at the Bradley Classic on Oct. 14.

Junior Kevin Oblinger posted a time of 26:49 to place ninth, and freshman James Martin notched a time of 26:53 for 10th place, rounding out the scoring for the Bulldogs and securing the title.

“We’ve got some room for improvement,” coach Matt Roe said.  “We are looking forward to running two weeks from now at the NCAA regional meet and hoping to be a little bit better.”

The Butler women completed a conference three-peat and took home their ninth title in ten years by placing their top five runners inside the top 10 overall and besting second place Youngstown State by 30 points.

Sophomore Shelbi Burnett turned in an 18:40, besting Loyola junior Gina Valgoi by five seconds for first place honors. Senior Lauren Haberkorn also cracked the top five by finishing fourth for the Bulldogs in a time of 19:24.

Juniors Rebecca Howarth and Kaitlyn Love finished sixth and seventh, respectively, for Butler, with times of 19:35 and 19:37. Junior Alyson Fosnot rounded out the scoring for the women by finishing 10th with a time of 19:44, besting freshman teammate Mara Olson by one second.

“Our women did a great job,” Roe said. “The team commitment and teamwork on the women’s side is very high.”

Next up for both teams is the Great Lakes Regional in Toledo, Ohio, on Nov. 12. The Bulldogs will be looking to qualify for a spot in the NCAA Championships, which will be held Nov. 21 in Terre Haute.