Thus far, the Wisconsin softball team has had to endure 21 non-conference games this season without competing in a single Big Ten bout.
Some good news for the Badgers: the Big Ten season is finally here, and now the competition may begin.
"I think it's going to be up for grabs," said UW head coach Chandelle Schulte of the conference title, a quest that begins for her squad this Friday at No. 17 Northwestern. "I want to get started. … I think there's a huge opportunity this year for a lot of teams to beat each other. There's going to be a lot of movement [that] people don't expect."
Schulte has good reason for her optimistic outlook this conference season. The Badgers took on the most ambitious non-conference schedule in the history of the program this spring — "we continued to go into the fire," said Schulte — traveling across the country to play games against teams like No. 3 Texas, No. 23 Fresno State, No. 12 Arizona State and No. 5 Stanford.
While Wisconsin did not post upset victories against those traditional western powerhouses, the team's confidence has grown by competing with them. The Badgers now know what they need to do to succeed against top-level competition.
Recently, the Badgers have drawn upon their reservoir of early-season experiences and have turned their season around in the last two weeks. Since March 15, the Badgers are on a five-game winning streak in which they have vastly outscored opponents, 30-6.
While ambitious scheduling is surely attractive to the fans — how many times have you wished the Badgers' football team would (just once) play Texas or Notre Dame in September — there is a delicate balance that needs to be attained for every college squad. Teams would like to challenge the best programs possible, but at the same time, coaches are caught worrying about establishing confidence in their team. Wisconsin has been able to find a happy medium between playing the top teams to gain experience while continuing to schedule games in which they can fuel their confidence by posting victories.
"You have a Michigan State and you have a Penn State that are leading the Big Ten now in wins," explained Schulte. "But their competitive schedule hasn't been what Michigan's, Iowa's or Wisconsin's has been. So, it's a give and take; the question will be do we have enough confidence to beat you, or did you play the competition that you need to beat [us]?"
The Badgers face a daunting task this weekend when they try to steal a victory or two in their doubleheader against conference foe Northwestern. The Wildcats, who have been ranked all year long, recently traveled to Los Angeles, where they unseated No. 1 UCLA, knocking them from the top of the national rankings. However, because of the Badgers' early-season experience against quality teams, they are not worried about this weekend's matchup.
"In my experience, anyone can beat anyone on any given day," said freshman pitcher Theresa Boruta. "I'm not discrediting them at all — they're a great team — but you don't look at past records to judge how you are going to do against them. … I'm not really worried about them [just because they] beat UCLA."
Coach Schulte echoed Boruta's comments.
"I don't think [the players] are intimidated," said Schulte. "This team doesn't seem to worry about too many other [teams]."
The coaching staff is certainly wary of the dangerous lineup that Northwestern puts on the field. Coach Schulte thinks that they will be tops in the Big Ten this season, as does assistant coach Martha McCall.
"I don't think that [Northwestern has] quite hit their peak yet," said McCall. "Last year, Michigan was the team [to beat] in the Big Ten, and we took them to the last inning. So I don't think we're really scared or intimidated by anybody because, in softball, anything can happen on any given day."
