With a chance to win the regular season Big Ten title, everything is on the line for the Wisconsin men’s soccer team as it prepares to go to University Park to face Penn State (9-5-2) Saturday.
“It’s a huge game for us,” senior Scott Lorenz said. “One of our preseason goals was to give ourselves a chance to win the Big Ten in the regular season, and to have this one play out until the end of the regular season is a big step for us. We are really looking forward to it.”
With just one conference game remaining in regular season play, five Big Ten teams are separated by just half a game in conference records.
Lorenz, who scored the game-winning goal in overtime against Michigan State Oct. 11 to send the Badgers (6-7-2) on their 3-1 stretch since, acknowledged the excitement that comes with such a close contest as the season wraps up.
“It’s real exciting to be in a real tight race at the end of the year,” Lorenz said. “To have things in your own destiny and be able to play that out is something you always look forward to.”
UW, which is 3-2 in conference play, has improved throughout the season and hopes to compete at its highest level in this tightly contested end-of-season run.
“I just want us to be playing our best come this time of the year,” UW head coach Todd Yeagely said. “When you play toward your potential, your opportunity for positive results is there.”
Rather than dwelling on the team’s failures against NIU, Yeagley emphasized that the team is still in great position and excited about the opportunity to clinch the Big Ten regular season title with a win Saturday and some help from Northwestern.
Along with a Badger win over Penn State, UW needs Northwestern to tie or lose one of its final two conference games.
“We didn’t play that well [Wednesday night], but we certainly didn’t take too many steps backward,” Yeagley said. “We have a lot of momentum going right now, and I think this group is really dedicated to getting back on track on Saturday.”
According to Lorenz, though, focus should not be an issue for Saturday’s game, recognizing that the whole team knows what is at stake.
“(In terms of the) team staying focused, we didn’t have the best game yesterday,” he said. “But everyone knows what’s on the line for Saturday, and I don’t think there will be a focus issue at all.”
Lorenz, who has seen both the good and bad with Wisconsin, playing all but 11 minutes thus far this season, reiterated a similar feeling of focusing on the situation at hand rather than dwelling on the past.
“It was kind of a ‘forget and move on’ attitude (after the NIU game),” Lorenz said. “We didn’t play well, and we know we didn’t play well. We got an unfortunate bounce for their goal and we’ll learn from it, fix that mistake and just try to move on, because we know that big things lie ahead.”
To refrain from falling victim to a similar outcome against Penn State, the team must be more aggressive on defense and try to get more goal-scoring opportunities offensively.
“We have got to create more chances (against Penn State) — I don’t think we created enough chances [Wednesday],” Lorenz said. “We are going to come out and play real aggressive, force the game on them, and open it up, because at this point, we have nothing to lose and everything to gain.”
Penn State ranks first in the Big Ten in shots and goals per game, while being tied for goals allowed and shutouts defensively.
Senior forward Jason Yeisley — the team captain and All-American candidate — has led the team offensively, scoring eight goals and 20 total points.
“[The Nittany Lions] are having a great year,” Lorenz said. “I think Jason Yeisley coming back for the team this year is a big boost for them. I think they have rallied around it, and their team has just kind of been hot all year.
“We know they are going to be a tough opponent,” he continued. “They always have been, regardless of their record the past couple of years. It is still a Big Ten game — we have got to come out and they have got to play.”
The team has high expectations for its final conference game of the year as the Badgers try to solidify their spot as the No. 1 team in the Big Ten Tournament.
“The expectation is a win, nothing short of [one],” Lorenz said. “We have put ourselves in this position and we are not going to go out there and pray for a tie or hope something flies our way — we are going to do everything we can in our power to get the victory.”