While most UW students were off on spring break, the Wisconsin men’s soccer team was getting back to work, beginning its spring exhibition season. The team completed a tough East Coast trip last week, dropping three close games.

The team kicked off its spring season last Saturday with a 1-0 loss to Virginia Commonwealth, followed by a Sunday contest with Maryland, where Wisconsin head coach Jeff Rohrman was an assistant coach for seven years before coming to Madison. The Badgers had a potential game-tying goal negated by an offsides penalty in the second half, and eventually lost by a score of 2-0. Wisconsin wrapped up the trip by dropping a 1-0 game to American University.

Although the Badgers did not emerge with a win, Rohrman was pleased with his team’s effort.

“In terms of building confidence, sometimes it’s nice to come away with a victory. But at the same time, there were some other victories, so to speak, that came from these games,” Rohrman said.

“I thought we competed well. I think defensively we showed some good signs. In the attack we still have to do a little bit better, in terms of creating chances and just dealing with the increased speed of play. Hopefully that will start to come and we will do a little bit better these next two games.”

Wisconsin returns home to take on two-time defending National Amateur Cup champion Milwaukee Bavarian on April 12. UW then closes out spring exhibitions with a matchup with the Milwaukee Wave United, a professional A-League team, on April 26.

The Badgers are taking full advantage of their five allotted spring games to prepare for the upcoming fall season.

“We’re fortunate enough to be able to take a spring trip, and I thought it was important for us when we take that trip to play as tough a team as we can,” Rohrman said. “We’ve played three tough college teams and now we are going to play one of the top pro teams and one of the top amateur teams in the country. That’s what I want and I think that’s what the players want as well through the spring, just to measure ourselves and see where we’re at.”

The spring season provides an opportunity for players to make a name for themselves. “One of the things we try to find is for one, two or three guys to really elevate their game, to really make some great strides and jumps in terms of their development,” Rohrman said. “For example, last year Eric Hanson was head and shoulders one of the guys who really elevated his game last spring and really claimed the goalkeeping spot. We are hoping one or two guys will make that same jump this spring.”

One player the coaching staff has been able to get a look at is Jed Hohlbein, who joins UW after transferring from Southwest Missouri State, where he led the team in scoring. “It is a great chance to see what Jed’s about and see him integrate into the team,” Rohrman said.

Hohlbein registered three shots in the opening game against Virginia Commonwealth.

Wisconsin returns most of its core talent and will add to that a large incoming freshmen class in the fall, making it difficult to predict exactly how the team will look.

“It’s not like we can say from this spring that we’re going to come out and play this system or play this way,” Rohrman said. “You hope that they come in and compete to play — and certainly we felt that through the recruiting process we got some guys that are going to be able to step on the field right away — but in terms of style and system of play, a lot of that will be sorted out in the preseason.”

And while they may not be implementing any new game plans, the Badgers will be fully utilizing the spring season.

“It’s an opportunity in the spring to work with some smaller numbers,” Rohrman said. “You get some more individual training.”