The Badger women’s soccer team improved its record to 4-0 following back-to-back wins over Missouri and Baylor at the Nike Tiger Invitational in Columbia, Mo., this weekend.
The overtime victory against the Bears Sunday gave Wisconsin the tournament title in the Badgers’ first appearance.
Against Mizzou, Wisconsin claimed an early lead and held strong for the remainder of regulation.
Junior striker Amy Vermeulen lobbed a volley to freshman Taylor Walsh, who fired it in to give UW an early advantage.
“Taylor’s early goal gave us tremendous momentum,” head coach Dean Duerst said. “Quick scoring may not happen all the time, but we’re certainly going after teams right away.”
Vermeulen then nabbed a goal herself with a header past Mizzou keeper Laura Buehrig at 27:47. The Wisconsin forward improved her team-leading points tally to nine after a goal and a pair of assists this weekend.
“I’m happy we were able to follow it up with another goal, and that we had a number of good scoring chances throughout the match,” Duest said.
Walsh’s goal, which also was assisted by sophomore midfielder Allison Preiss, was the Badgers’ sixth in the first 10 minutes of a half this season, as well as the third in the first 10 minutes of a match.
Tigers’ striker Jennifer Nobis foiled Lynn Murray’s shutout with a goal at 42:24, extending her scoring streak to three games.
“Missouri adjusted well to us, so we played a lot more defense in the second half,” Duerst said. “But once again, we did what we needed to do to win, and we never really let them in the match.”
Walsh racked up three points for the evening by assisting, along with junior striker Katy Lindenmuth, on Vermeulen’s goal. Altogether, the Wisconsin forwards proved rather effective against a tough Mizzou backfield.
The team then climbed back from a two-goal deficit Sunday afternoon to defeat Baylor 3-2 in extra time.
Senior striker Marla Froelich scored twice in regulation and Preiss capped off the comeback with one second remaining in the first overtime.
“A game like this just proves that you should never stop working or believing,” head coach Dean Duerst said.
The match clinched a tournament victory for Wisconsin as Baylor also entered play with a Friday win against Iowa.
Baylor opened a lead when Anna Schuch earned a break-away off of a Badger turnover and scored 10:33 into the match. Jessica Hutton scored at the 37:10 mark, when her corner kick sailed past Murray, giving Baylor a 2-0 lead.
Two minutes later, the Badgers responded when standout defensive midfielder Molly Meuer assisted Froelich, who put it past the keeper, cutting the lead to 2-1 at halftime.
Froelich added her second goal of the game 15:04 deep in the second half when she finished off a passing sequence from Vermeulen and freshman midfielder Katy Meuer. Meuer switched fields to Vermeulen, who sent a pass back across to Froelich, who in turn found the back of the net to tie the score at two and send the game into overtime.
With less than 30 seconds left to play in the first overtime, the referee flagged the Badgers for offsides. Baylor keeper Ashley Holder took the free kick from 25 yards out, but her kick went errant and found Preiss, who played the ball back over the keeper’s head and into the net to claim a last second victory for the Badgers.
“Baylor came out with a lot of intensity today,” Duerst said. “However, we were able to make the adjustments that we needed to make and win the game.”
–compiled from staff reports
