On days like this records become significantly lessened and perhaps forgotten. Senior Day has arrived for the women’s soccer team, meaning emotions will take heightened levels.

The Badgers (4-8-3, 2-6-1) will say their farewells to six seniors in this, their final home weekend of competition. Allie Rogosheske, Kelly Kundert, Shelby Johnson, Wynter Pero and Natalie Roedler will all be saying farewell and appearing in their home uniforms for the last time of their careers.

Today the Badgers take on Northwestern in their last Big Ten showdown of the season. The Wildcats (4-9-1 overall, 2-6-1 Big Ten) come in on a two-game losing skid. Much like UW, NU has also been eliminated from Big Ten playoff contention, making the game a battle of pride.

“They mirror us,” said head coach Dean Duerst. “They’ve taken a couple tough losses, played overtime games and played (to) ties. They’ve been in every game like us. They are just resilient.”

Wisconsin has been searching for offense all season and will have an additional boost this weekend with the return of the senior Kundert.

The squad’s points leader will come back after an ACL injury hiatus kept her off the field for the previous five games. Kundert’s return to the lineup comes just in the nick of time for her to complete her career with one last home-series hurrah.

“It’s the first weekend back coming off from two injuries,” said Kundert. “I feel good to go. I’m ready to get out there and end my career on a good note. It’s a huge weekend — we’ve got to win, and I’m excited.”

Kundert and Roedler, tied for second in total goals, aim to hook up once more in conference play and give UW the offense boost that is so desperately lacking. The duo may team up with the other four seniors to be up to no good prior to game time.

“The seniors are going to put something together before the game,” said Kundert.

“I can’t tell what it is though.”

Senior workhorse defender Rogosheske will be asked to keep tabs on Northwestern’s Katie Hertz, one of the Big Ten’s premier players, in her last conference game if UW plans to make Senior Day special.

“[Winning the game would be] so meaningful,” said Rogosheske. “We’ve been playing hard all season. We’re really looking forward to beating our last Big Ten team. We always have a good battle against [Northwestern] and we want to go out with a bang.”

Following the emotional roller coaster that is Senior Day, the Badgers will
have in-state rival Marquette (11-3, 7-1) making the 70-mile journey to
Madison Sunday afternoon.

The 18th ranked Golden Eagles will be preparing and working on ironing out the kinks for conference and NCAA postseason play in the upcoming weeks.

During Marquette’s past 13 games, the squad has lost only two contests, both in double overtime, and has held their opponents to seven shutouts this season.

“They’re a great team,” said Duerst. “We’re just as good as they are. We always have very strong [in-state rival games].”

Wishing the seniors goodbye is not the only celebration of the weekend; Sunday brings Fan Appreciation Day to the McClimon Soccer Complex. The chance for the six seniors to take both games on pure emotion is legit, and Duerst has no apprehensions about his team’s ability to get up for the weekend.

“[Our players] are looking for two back-to-back wins in a row at home to close out [the year] for the seniors,” said Duerst. “Getting Kundert back has added excitement to the mix.”

The UW soccer squad is searching for the silver lining in a down season, and raw emotion seems likely to be the key.