With Sunday’s 2-1 overtime loss to third-seeded Pepperdine in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, the women’s soccer season came to an end.
The miraculous turnaround from last season’s poor showing was topped off by falling one game short of winning the Big Ten Tournament and making it to the NCAA Tournament for only the 12th time in school history.
Compared to last season’s 5-11-3 (1-7-2 Big Ten) record, going to the NCAA Tournament was practically a Cinderella story. The team made one of the biggest turnarounds in all of college sports from last season to this season.
Head coach Dean Duerst was impressed with the play of his team in the Big Ten championship game.
“I’m very proud of this team,” Duerst said. “I think they’ve shown themselves — what they’re made of, what they can accomplish as a group. We’re a heck of a team … I don’t think we played our best game. Ohio State played a beautiful game of soccer. It was a great tournament in terms of intensity, in terms of us doing what we needed to do to get to a championship game.”
Making it to the championship game, however, was enough to catch the eye of the NCAA Tournament and earn the Badgers a bid to play for the national title. The Badgers’ 12 appearances in the tournament are tops in the Big Ten.
“We were a little nervous; there was a little doubt,” senior co-captain and Milwaukee native Lauren Schmidt said. “We knew we were playing well enough in the end of the season. We had all the criteria. We’re so glad they recognized us.”
“It’s hard to even think about last season anymore,” Schmidt said. “I think we’ve come such a long way. This season started the day after we didn’t make it last year. It really has been an entire year that we’ve been working toward this.”
With the team’s captains all graduating and a loss of four players, the team is going to look to some of its younger players to fill in the gaps. Sophomore Lisa Mattiacci in particular will have big shoes to fill with the graduation of senior goalkeeper Kelly Conway, the all-time saves leader for Wisconsin.
But with the return of all-Big Ten first-team player Jenny Kundert and freshman Marisa Brown, who was named to the newly created all-Big Ten freshman team, things are surely looking positive for the Badgers.
“I think we found ourselves as a team through leadership, freshmen filling their roles and chemistry,” Duerst said. “This team leaves a great impression on me. They battled a lot of teams. There’s a bright future ahead.”
