[media-credit name=’Derek Montgomery’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]The Wisconsin women’s soccer team (13-4-1) was able to beat UW-Green Bay (3-10-3) by a 5-1 margin Sunday at the McClimon Soccer Complex.

“[The win] was important,” striker Katy Lindenmuth said. “We are trying to be the best team in the state and beat all of our in-state rivals. It was really important for us to make a statement.”

The Badgers have never lost to the Phoenix in the 11 matches the teams have played. The Phoenix had a chance to change that today despite the Badgers out-shooting them 13-3.

“[Green Bay] had a couple dangerous players,” head coach Dean Duerst said. “We were at least keying on those good players, dangerous kids, but it was our group defending. Even if they got in behind, [we stopped them]. We didn’t allow them those extra shots. We were clean defensively on the extra balls around the box. It is showing that you have team defending and you have pressure around the ball.”

Wisconsin got off to a quick start with Lindenmuth punching one in at the 12:28 mark. Sophomore Allison Preiss continued the scoring for the Badgers, scoring on a header after a spectacular pass from junior Marisa Brown at 18:15. The Badgers took that 2-0 lead into the intermission.

“At half 2-0 is good, but we need to play the full 90 [minutes],” Duerst said. “Once you get a team down, you continue to break their back a little bit.”

The Badgers were unable to keep the Phoenix off the board for long in the second half. Green Bay’s Catherine Kadar knocked in her penalty kick to pull Green Bay within one just six minutes into the second half.

However, the Phoenix were unable to add another tally, and the Badgers pounced on them with a flurry of goals in a five-minute stretch to slam the door on the Phoenix.

Lindenmuth was able to beat Green Bay’s goaltender to put Wisconsin up by two at 77:13. A short four minutes later, Katy Meuer pushed one across the line to close the book on Green Bay. But her sister, Molly Meuer, added the icing on the cake with the Badgers’ fifth goal a minute later to put the finishing touch on the victory.

“It wasn’t the prettiest soccer there for awhile,” Lindenmuth said. “They play really tough. They’re really physical, so we had to deal with that a little. We kind of got out of our groove, but we got back into the flow of things and finished on a better note then we started.”

Coach Duerst is happy with the effort the team is showing and hopes they continue to play the way they have lately.

“We have to be consistent — consistent team — consistent effort,” Duerst said. “The last couple of games I’m seeing that consistency amongst our team. That is a great picture of where we want to be — playing our best soccer now towards the end.”