Youth and experience worked together to help the UW women’s soccer team earn its first conference win this season, a 3-1 victory over Michigan State, but the Badgers couldn’t win against the No. 14 Michigan Wolverines.

In a weekend that saw several young players help the team along, the Badgers lost their first game of the weekend 3-2 against Michigan. Freshman Katy Lindenmuth scored the game-tying goal to bring the score to 2-2, but eventually Michigan’s Abby Crumpton was too much, scoring her third goal of the game to seal the victory for the Wolverines.

“We played with a lot more intensity in the second half and came out a lot more physical to match Michigan’s intensity, and it worked a lot better for us,” Lindenmuth said of the Badgers’ second-half near-comeback.

In the second game of the weekend the Badgers faced a tough Michigan State team that featured goalie Stacy Heller, who has already shut out four teams this season and brought in an impressive 6-1 record for the year. Carrying their intensity over from the Michigan game, the Badgers jumped on the MSU Spartans with goals from Jenny Kundert, as well as redshirt freshman Jessica Ring, who scored her first collegiate goal.

In the end, the Badgers won the game 3-1, but utterly dominated the Spartans in every aspect of the game. Utilizing more substitutions than usual, head coach Dean Duerst kept the intensity of his team up by keeping fresh players in as much as possible.

“Two reasons — first, fatigue because of the warmth of the day, and also to keep that intensity up,” Duerst said of his substitution pattern. “We’ also felt that we’ve got personnel to use. I liked how important a factor that was in the game, especially on a second day, how well our players coming in off the bench did. We didn’t lose too much pulling some players.”

This tactic allowed the Badgers to let their younger players, Lindenmuth and goal-scoring Jessica Ring, shine.
“It feels great — it’s definitely a good feeling,” Ring said of her first collegiate goal. “JK [Jenny Kundert] got the ball coming across, and I made a diagonal run, and JK spotted it though. It was great to come out with a win over Michigan State.”
With the mix of aged veterans and talented underclassmen, the Badgers pose a double threat. After last year’s disappointing season, Wisconsin is already improving upon its past mistakes by beating a Michigan State team that held the Badgers to a tie last year.