During Friday night's match against Missouri, the University of Wisconsin women's soccer team was struggling on offense. One had to look no further than to Wisconsin's bench to find the reason.

The Badgers were playing without senior midfielder Kara Kabellis, who was forced to miss the match against the Tigers after being issued a red card in the team's previous match against Pepperdine.

She returned Sunday to face Kentucky and made an immediate impact by scoring the Badgers' only goal in a 1-0 victory.

"She's just an all-around athlete," Wisconsin head coach Dean Duerst said Monday at a press conference. "She's tall, but she's very gifted with the ball at her feet, and when you get that combination, opponents can't take the ball off of her very well."

Kabellis currently sits among the top three on the team in goals, assists and points. She leads the team in shots on goal and total shots.

"She's just instinctive in her game," Duerst said. "There's not an opponent or coach that won't try to man-mark her or put two players on her, especially on free kicks and set plays."

Sunday's game against Kentucky marked the return of junior goalkeeper Lynn Murray. Murray was injured in the first game of the season against Creighton and had not seen the field since. She picked up right where she left off and posted her first shutout of the season and 11th of her career.

While Murray was injured, senior goalkeeper Stephani Szczechowski stepped in and led the Badgers to a 2-2-2 record. In those games, Szczechowski posted 1.13 goals against average and a .720 save percentage. This leaves Duerst with a goaltending quandary in upcoming games.

Looking for answers, Duerst has turned to other coaches — in a different sport — that have to deal with their own goalie battles. Duerst said that he has talked to both UW men's hockey coach Mike Eaves and UW women's hockey coach Mark Johnson to get their takes on how they handle their goalies.

"[Johnson and Eaves] have had to deal with that too, so it's just good to hear what other coaches think about when you're making these decisions," Duerst said.

The plan for now is to keep giving both Murray and Szczwechowski minutes, provided that they both are training well.

Whoever Duerst does start, he and his team will rally behind her.

"Ultimately, maybe one will rise to be that No. 1, but right now the team has very much confidence in both those goalies," Duerst said.

As the Badgers enter Big Ten play this weekend, they hope to prove wrong those that voted them eighth in the Big Ten season projections.

"The last few years in our conference have been the story of parity," Duerst said. "Everybody knows Penn State is No. 1, and then how does everyone else shake out?"

Using a non-conference schedule including five teams that made the NCAA tournament last season, Duerst and his Badgers have set themselves up to be a definite player by posting a 1-1-2 record against four of the five teams that made the tournament last season.

Duerst said he his fine with where the Badgers are now heading into conference play, and he's going to let the Badgers' performance dictate the rankings.

"You have to get the job done on the field," he said.

While Kabellis may be the linchpin for the team this year, Duerst said he's looking at sophomore forward Taylor Walsh as the team's go-to player right now.

Walsh currently leads the team in goals and points, is tied for first in assists, and is tied for second in shots on goal.

"Right now, I think Taylor is giving us the very best looks," Duerst said.

That said, Duerst is still relying on a team effort to get them through the season.

"We really have to rely more than just on that one [player]," Duerst added. "Taylor so far has stepped it up right now. Really what I want is Taylor, Kara, Krista [Liskevych] to step up. You know Kara is just going to help us; she's going to find ways to get goals for us. So I want one of these other two players to step it in."