Sports

Cardinal, white to split up in round-robin tournament

UW-Parkside, UW-Green Bay, Northwestern and UW-Madison will all battle the Badgers Saturday at the McClimon Soccer Complex in a spring round-robin tournament.

Wisconsin will split its squad into two teams — Cardinal and White — and are scheduled to play continuously throughout the day.

"It's going to be fun," UW head coach Jeff Rohrman said. "We only have five days to play in the spring, so it's nice to have a tournament at home."

The Badgers are recently coming off of a successful spring break tour of Washington, D.C., where they played matches against the professional team of Richmond, the University of Richmond and the 2005 NCAA champion, Maryland.

"We had a very successful trip out on the East Coast over spring break," Rohrman said. "We competed very well in the three games we played. We defended very well, and there were a lot of positives that came out of that. Hopefully, we can continue that."

While in our nation's capital, the Badgers first fell to the pro team Richmond 1-0 before claiming a 3-0 victory over the Spiders. Wisconsin concluded its journey with a 1-1 stalemate against Maryland.

Junior defenseman Hamid Afsari, sophomore midfielder Erik Ortega and freshman forward Victor Diaz (two goals) all notched points for UW over spring break.

The Badgers success may be due in part to their hard work during the offseason.

During the offseason, Rohrman's crew spent time lifting, training by themselves and training in small groups with the coaches.

Throughout the winter, the Badgers spent time indoors. The Badgers officially started their spring season four weeks ago with scheduled workouts and matches.

Though the team is now outdoors, weather permitting, the team has adjusted well to the fresh breeze and natural field conditions.

"You have a true surface and predictable conditions indoors, but outdoors, you have to have all that stuff to be prepared for," Rohrman explained.

This Saturday will be a chance for the Badgers to continue their spring training and competitive skills in this no-pressure tournament. As of late, the Badgers have been working on defending, and Rohrman is hoping for an improvement this weekend.

"One of the things that we have been working on and striving towards is our defending, whether it be individually or in a group," Rohrman explained. "I think we have taken some good steps forward, but there is still room for improvement."

The round-robin tournament kicks off Saturday at 11 a.m. Each scrimmage will last an hour and a new match will start every 75 minutes.

Following the tournament the Badgers will resume their normal spring training schedule.

Rohrman's squad will continue to practice until its last tournament April 29 at UW-Oshkosh.

"We are just getting back into it. We wrap up April 29. We have a little over three weeks left. It's nice to be able to have some games to look forward too," Rohrman explained. "Spring can get a little long when you only have five days to play. But we have been doing as good of a job as we can trying to space them out, so [the players] have something to look forward to."