As the women’s soccer teams rolls on into Big Ten play and the team leaders and stars start to emerge, one player in particular has been turning heads. Her name is Jenny Kundert, a junior F/MF for the University of Wisconsin and one of Madison’s very own. After being born and raised in Madison and graduating from Madison West High School, Jenny Kundert was faced with a choice. She chose to stay in her home city, despite a plethora of other tempting offers.
“My parents told me to try and narrow it down to three schools,” Kundert said. “Notre Dame, Arizona State and Wisconsin popped in there [for third choice]. My sister went here, I’m close to home, and I decided I just loved Madison.”
Kundert has already eclipsed her total stats from last year when she totaled one goal and four assists, and she already has two goals and four assists nine games into the season. In addition, she was named the MVP of the Cyclone Classic two weeks ago. At the classic, she led her team to the tournament title over host team Iowa State Cyclones.
Kundert and the rest of the women’s soccer team took a trip to Europe this summer, and judging by her play so far, Kundert has managed to learn more than how unsavory kidney pies and cooked snails taste.
“I brought back cookies, but we also came back with an improved team chemistry,” Kundert said. “We also learned a lot more about how to play with European people–they’re a little meaner out there. We’re definitely different from last year’s team.”
The women’s team has always had a good relationship, according to Kundert, but this season the team has learned to compete as an entire team, rather than as individuals.
“Last year we had a love for each other, but this year more of a respect,” Kundert said. “Previous years it’s been upperclassmen versus lowerclassmen; this year we’re all meshing a lot better. I’m really close to even the young girls, and we know where each other are [on the field] without even looking.”
Once back from Europe, Jenny kept focus while taking a more serious attitude during the rest of the off-season. Focusing on a tougher fitness regimine, she did a lot more running and played pickup games wherever she could find them, whether that meant playing on a local club team or with kids in the park.
This year’s team promises to improve upon its overall record of last year despite having an identical record at this point last year. The incredible downfall that saw the Badgers finish with an overall record last year 5-11-3 is something the team is focused on avoiding.
So far, the noticeable difference for Kundert and her teammates is that all their losses this season have been by a single point. Keeping games close will make all the difference when they start playing tougher competition that is used to comfortable leads.
This is a philosophy Kundert believes may help the team get a win against Michigan Friday at the McClimon Track/Soccer Complex. The Wolverines have outscored their last two opponents by a total of 6-2 and are ranked No. 1 regionally.
“We have a tough weekend ahead, but what our team tends to do is lay in the weeds against okay teams, then we like to step it up against better teams,” Kundert said. “So we’re hoping to pull out two wins this weekend.”
In what promises to be one of the most intense games of the season, Jenny and the rest of the Badgers are hoping to come out with two victories at home and set a tempo for the rest of the season that will carry them to a Big Ten title–something the UW team hasn’t done since the Badgers won the first Big Ten postseason championship back in 1994.
