After opening the conference schedule Friday with a 2-0 win over Indiana, the women’s soccer team lost 1-0 to Purdue Sunday, falling to 5-3-1 on the year.

Purdue (6-1-1) came out strong, scoring the game’s only goal less than five minutes into the first half. Purdue forward Sharon Pagorek surprised the Wisconsin defense with a long pass to forward Courtney Coppedge, who sprinted past two Badger defenders and slipped the ball past goalkeeper Stefani Szczechowski to put the Boilermakers ahead 1-0 with 41:07 remaining in the half.

“Purdue plays an emotional game, and we knew that coming in,” head coach Dean Duerst said. “We knew they want to have an early start, and we just didn’t perform. They got their goal off of a good serve and behind our backs, and that just should not have happened.”

The Badgers fought back, generating numerous scoring chances and out-shooting Purdue 14-7, but could not break through with a goal. With 23:40 left in the first half, leading scorer Jenny Kundert went one-on-one with Purdue goalkeeper Lauren Mason, but Mason came up with a spectacular save to secure her fifth consecutive shutout.

“The game just boiled down to us missing all those chances again,” Duerst said. “We needed one or two people to just put the ball away. We got more shots than they did and tied in shots on goal. We had more dangerous opportunities, and we just weren’t able to put a goal in today.”

In the final twenty minutes, the Badgers turned up their offensive intensity, sending players forward to attack the Purdue goal. The move left Szczechowski vulnerable to a Purdue counterattack, which came with 13:08 remaining in the game. Szczechowski left the box to break up the Purdue breakaway with a diving save, but received a red card for using her hands outside the penalty area.

“It was a good decision that she made to come out on that because in that kind of situation, you just want to keep the ball out of the net,” goalkeeper Maria Boncyk said. “A red card is definitely worth a goal if we’re down 1-0. It’s probably what I would have done, too.”

Prior to the Purdue loss, the Badgers defeated Indiana 2-0 in the Big Ten conference opener, as leading scorer Kundert returned to the starting lineup after a one-game absence due to a strained quadricep.

Kundert made an immediate impact, scoring the game’s first goal with 25:52 left in the first half to give the Badgers an early 1-0 lead.

In the second half, Kundert struck again. Slicing through the Indiana defense, the talented forward drew a foul inside the penalty box to earn a Wisconsin penalty kick with 15:56 remaining in the game. Kundert’s effort paid off as forward Kara Kabellis calmly converted the penalty shot to give the Badgers a commanding 2-0 lead.

“Jenny [Kundert] showed what kind of player she is,” Duerst said. “She was the player of the day.”

After the first weekend of conference play, Wisconsin’s Big Ten record stands at 1-1 heading into a difficult road trip that will pit the Badgers against Michigan (1-3-3, 0-0-1) this Friday and Michigan State (5-1-0, 1-0-0) this Sunday. Wisconsin’s first conference road games take on added significance after the Badgers’ loss to Purdue.

“It makes it bigger because of our result today,” Duerst said. “You need to be better that next weekend. We want to get two results on the weekend.”