SPORTS
UW set for playoff push
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Also by Jon Arens:
- Top-ranked Badger hockey takes on Wildcats (November 16, 2007)
- Brother motivates Keseley (November 14, 2007)
- UW set for playoff push (November 8, 2007)
- Wisconsin takes struggles to Chicago (October 26, 2007)
- Goodman shuts down nation's best (October 23, 2007)
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- Ramirez, Cook talk playoffs (October 22, 2007)
- Banged up Badgers geared up for grueling playoff run (March 7, 2006)
- Special Rockies provide magic (October 8, 2007)
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by Jon Arens
Thursday, November 8, 2007
As the common saying goes, "You can't script the playoffs."
For some, it's something they've heard since Little League. For others, the
phrase was pounded into their brains by means of Dane Cook and his delightful
TBS World Series commercials. For the UW men's soccer team, it's been on the
white board for months.
"If we get a strong push here (in the Big Ten tournament)
and get the results that we need, we're going to find ourselves in the NCAA
tournament," sophomore midfielder Scott Lorenz said Wednesday.
Indeed, the team could certainly use all the wins it can get
at this point. Since being ranked in the top 20 nationally for the first time
in a decade two months ago, the Badgers have endured multiple injuries and more
than their share of bad bounces, all of which seemed to point to an early exit
in this year's Big Ten tournament starting today in East Lansing, Michigan.
That changed last week when the team got its first win in
eight games. In beating University of Illinois-Chicago 2-1, the Badgers seemed
to suddenly play like a completely different team, and that attitude showed
just days later as the Badgers tied Indiana, the No. 1 seed in the Big Ten tournament,
0-0 in the last home contest of the year.
"I've felt that our level of play was much better in the
last couple of games against [UIC] and Indiana. It will be important to bring
some of what we did in those games out when we play Northwestern on Thursday,"
Wisconsin head coach Jeff Rohrman said. "We certainly have a lot to play for."
Northwestern, fresh off a 2-0 conference win over Michigan
State, comes into the tournament as one of the more dominant teams in a hectic
conference, finishing the regular season with a 3-2-1 record. One of those wins
came at the hands of the Badgers, who suffered the 3-0 setback a little more
than a month ago in Evanston.
The Wildcats' win over the Spartans is particularly
impressive when you look at what Michigan State did to Wisconsin at home: a 4-0
throttling that marked a low point in Wisconsin's season.
So how does a team lose two games like that and still have
life in the conference picture? Wisconsin needed to start with a win to stop
the bleeding. UIC, check.
Next up? The conference leading Hoosiers. A tie, check.
With momentum on their side, the Badgers seem poised to
finally live up the early season hype that surrounded them after defeating
California and Stanford in back-to-back games.
Victor Diaz, junior midfielder and team leader in points,
feels like the Badgers have finally figured themselves out.
"This team can win the tournament," Diaz said. "We tied one
of the best teams in the country the other day. If we put in the same kind of
effort we put in Sunday, I have no doubt we will get a good result."
Lorenz shares Diaz's enthusiasm, feeling that the motivation
to keep the collegiate careers of their seniors alive is "definitely something
that we have been able to rally around to bring the team together."
The Badgers will need the desire to extend the careers of
seniors B.J. Goodman, Sho Fujita, Erik Ortega, Dirk Pearson and Nick Caronna to
generate an extra push to get past the Wildcats, who, despite an injury to
starting goalie Misha Rosenthal, are still very dangerous.
Northwestern is led in points by three players, all of which
have 15 on the season. Two, Matt Eliason and Piero Bellizzi, are freshman
standouts. The last one, senior David Roth, is the only one of the three-headed
attacking machine who scored against Wisconsin in their last contest.
By moving Goodman back to the defensive line after a short
spell at midfield, as well as shifting Diaz out to right midfield opposite
Lorenz, Rohrman hopes his team will be able to weather the storm while creating
one themselves.
"I think [the end of the season] finally coming to an end
has really opened the eyes to our players," Rorhman said. "I think the seniors
have really made the rest of the players realize the finality of the season.
[The seniors] have certainly inspired them and taught them to make the most of
every moment and every game."
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