WPSL North Lakes Conference Championship Preview

FC Milwaukee Torrent v St Croix Legacy – Wednesday July 2nd – 8:30pm, Uihlein Soccer Park, Milwaukee, WI

This is a brand-new conference, and for the teams in the Land of the Lakes Division, it is also the first-ever Conference Final, as the Northern Conference had previously only had one division. Added to that, St Croix Legacy has played twice in the past week to even qualify for the Conference Championship. That scheduling quirk meant that the team from the Eastern side of the Twin Cities metro has played from behind in the standings for almost the entire season, with Salvo and the Thunder squad (who opted out of postseason play) setting the pace at the top and a competitive slate of team performance overall. Tatum Trettel of Shoreview, MN leads the way with 7 goals and Amara Smith from Lake Elmo, MN offering assists and 5 goals of her own.

Nathan Klonecki, Executive Director of St Croix Soccer Club spoke to us after they qualified:

We are excited to represent the North Lakes Conference at the WPSL playoffs next week.
In watching the FC Milwaukee Torrent team they are a strong team and we know it will be difficult but with this Legacy team we will definitely give all of our effort.

The St Croix Legacy being in our 3rd year in WPSL we have had seen growth every year on and off the field. The roster is very young and using many of our St Croix SC youth players and then adding other local talent has been a fun season for everyone involved. The coaching staff (Marcos Rodriguez-Sporting Director/Head Coach, Phil Walczak- Asst Coach, and Kate Paetz- GK coach) has done a fabulous job!

In the Lake Michigan Division, it has been a three-way fight for the one spot between FC Milwaukee Torrent, Milwaukee-based Bavarian United and Green Bay Glory. The battle went down to the last week, when Torrent, Bavarians and Glory faced each other directly. It was Torrent that emerged from the gauntlet, shutting out the Glory’s division leading offense on their way to an unbeaten regular season. They boast a longer history than Legacy, having joined the WPSL in 2018 and won their Conference in 2023.

Women’s Head Coach and Club Owner, Andreas Davi spoke to us before the match:

We are happy that we won the division for four years in a row now and look forward to the conference final. The roster is very deep this year and it will be interesting to see where this journey goes.