[media-credit name=’ERIN KEEFFE/Herald photo’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′][/media-credit]The Wisconsin men's soccer team (7-10-0, 1-4-0 Big Ten) closes out its Big Ten and regular season this Sunday when it heads to Evanston, Ill., to face Northwestern University (9-5-2, 1-3-1) at the Leonard Thomas Athletic Complex at 1 p.m.

Statistically, Wisconsin has dominated Northwestern over the past 30 years, posting a 22-4-4 all-time record and out-scoring the Wildcats 60 to 18. However, in the past eight matches between the two teams, the Wildcats have held a slight advantage over the Badgers with a 4-3-1 record — including a 2-1 victory last season in Madison.

Despite last season's setback, Wisconsin is looking forward to the trip south with its newfound confidence in the offense's ability to score goals following back-to-back wins by scores of 2-1 over Michigan State and 3-0 over UW-Green Bay.

"The guys have to feel good because we've had a couple of wins in the last two games," head coach Jeff Rohrman said. "Probably more than anything, they're seeing that our offense is capable of doing some things. I'm sure they're very excited — as they should be — and we're looking forward to playing Northwestern."

Offensively, Northwestern is led by junior striker Brad North this season, who has tallied 16 points off of eight goals. Senior Kevin Earnest and junior Gerardo Alvarez have also contributed heavily to the Wildcat offense with three goals apiece in 2005. Anchoring the Wildcat midfield this season has been sophomore midfielder David Roth, who leads the team with six assists on the year.

In its previous match this past Sunday, Northwestern bagged a nail-biting 2-1 victory over Butler University with a first half strike by North and an 88th-minute game-winner by Earnest. For Sunday's matchup, Rohrman hopes his defense can step up and accept the challenge posed by Northwestern's many offensive threats.

"We're going to have to play very solid defensively," Rohrman said. "[Northwestern is] very good going forward with Brad North and Gerardo [Alvarez] — both of those guys can be a handful. Also, David Roth and Kevin Earnest are very athletic and skillful guys who, if you lose track of, can cause you problems."

While the Badgers have struggled on the road this season — posting a dismal 2-7 record away from home — the Wildcats have been unstoppable on their home field, yielding an undefeated 5-0-1 record, as well as out-scoring their opponents 12-2 in Evanston. The only draw for Northwestern came against two-time defending national champions No. 8 Indiana back on Oct. 16 in a tight 1-1 fixture.

To counter the Wildcat's stingy defense at home, the Badgers will look to feed piping-hot striker Victor Diaz. The redshirted freshman from Madrid, Spain has been a machine for the cardinal and white lately, producing 12 points off of five goals and two assists in the past five games.

With two goals in their last match against UW-Green Bay and a third tally against Michigan two weeks ago, junior midfielder William Bagayoko has also played inspired soccer for Wisconsin lately.

Against Northwestern, Rohrman believes his squad must pepper the Wildcat goal with quality shots just as they did in their last match.

"We're going to have to do as well as we did [against UW-Green Bay] with our shots — get them on goal and make their keeper make saves," Rohrman said. "We've got to test them, and test them a lot."

With the Big Ten tournament just on the horizon, the Badgers will be looking to finish their regular season with a three-game winning streak and take some momentum from Sunday's match into the Nov. 10 tourney.