After last year’s disappointing season, the women’s soccer team is extremely excited to get back on the field this year and showcase the members’ talents.

In 2001, the team went 5-11-3 overall and 1-7-2 in the Big Ten. These records can be deceiving; nine of those losses were by the difference of one goal, five by the difference of two goals and three ended in ties.

This year the team hopes to have added the missing pieces in the off-season so those one-goal losses will become wins.

“Throughout the spring, we gained a mental toughness,” head coach Dean Duerst said. “We went after certain goals and we obtained them. There was a lot of effort and work that went into changing our attitude, our style and our system.”

Last spring, the team played teams like UW-Milwaukee, UW-Oshkosh, Marquette and a U-17 boys club team to prepare for the upcoming season and try out new combinations on the field.

From May 28 to June 8 the team also had the opportunity to take a trip to Europe and compete in five games against teams from London, Amsterdam and Paris.

After last spring’s play the team named senior goalkeeper Kelly Conway and senior midfielder Lauren Schmidt co-captains.

“One of the things about Kelly is she is one of the stronger core goalkeepers I have seen,” coach Duerst said. “I think this will be a very good year for Kelly. She is a leader on this team in the back. She gives a presence. She is a very good shot saver, and now for her to reach the new level and help this team win is for her to ultimately make those big decisions and come up with the big plays.”

Coach Duerst explained that Schmidt’s role on offense is just as important to the team as Conway’s role on defense. He describes Schmidt as “the tireless worker of this team.”

“Each game is critical. We can’t look ahead–we need to take one game at a time. I think that is one thing about Kelly and Lauren, is that they have experienced two very, very strong years and one extremely frustrating and disappointing year. Now it is up to them how they want to go out this year.”

Perhaps the most solid part of the team this year is its defense, as the team returns its back four defenders.

Out wide are two juniors, Bethany Heine and Elly Patterson. Heine shared in the team’s Defensive MVP award and was one of four players to start all 19 games.

Starting at stopper will be Molly Meuer, UW’s co-freshman of the year, who was the first Badger to put one in the goal in the annual cardinal/white scrimmage. Rounding out the defense will be Madison native Brooke Vanderby, who started 10 games last season.

“The great thing about our defense is they have time together,” Duerst said. “All four of those players have played together a lot last fall in the back. They have stayed very healthy and very ready.”

The most important part of the team’s game that needed improvement in the off-season was its offense. Last year the team was only able to score 21 goals in 19 games.

The Badgers graduated their top two points leaders on offense in Natalie Roedler and Kelly Kundert, who tallied 13 and 10 points respectively.

However, UW will return sophomore Amy Vermeulen, who totaled nine points, and junior Jenny Kundert, who tallied six points after an injury-filled season.

The team will look to those two players to remain leaders on the offensive end of the field.

“This team needs Jenny Kundert to stay healthy for the aspect of producing more goals,” Duerst said. “I feel like fortunately we may be able to do that because we have more personnel, and [we] can give her more time to rest so she doesn’t have to do as much of the work. We’re going to attack with many different players versus just one or two key players.”

Conway seems to agree with her coach that this year’s team has a more diverse arsenal of players to work with on offense.

“I think this year, more than any other year, we have some awesome forwards,” Conway said. “We definitely have more talent and depth up front than I have seen since I have been here.”

In addition to keeping the defense strong and adding some depth up front, the program was successful in recruiting, bringing in six talented players who have the opportunity to see some playing time their first season wearing the cardinal and white.

Three of the six, Marisa Brown, Erin Dubina and Lindsey Larsen, look to play midfielder, while Roz Klaas will spend her time up front. Katy Lindenmuth is a midfielder/forward and Carolyn Nosbusch will be playing defender/midfielder.

Two of the freshmen, Lindenmuth and Dubina, have been making their presence felt immediately as both players tallied a goal in the cardinal/white scrimmage.

“We feel we’ve got players that are going to be able to contribute immediately,” Coach Duerst said. “This is a very strong group of six individuals that are all playing on high level club teams?they all have a good sense of the game. They fit some of our key needs in terms of attacking.”

With the changes the team made in the offseason and the addition of these six new players the team is setting its goals pretty high this season.

“We want to win the Big Ten championship and the regular-season tournament,” commented Conway. “I think it is expected that we make the NCAA tournament, and my goal is to make it past the second round.”

Coach Duerst echoes his captain’s goals for high achievement this year, but hopes to go even further.

“Our goals are to get back to a Final Four,” Duerst said, “to get beyond where we have fallen short. This team this year has to set a goal to get into the Sweet Sixteen; we have the chemistry, we have talent–we just need to get there. I think they understand what they need to do to get there. It will take consistency, performance and excellence.”