[media-credit name=’GREGORY DIXON/Herald Photo’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′][/media-credit]Last weekend was a good one for the Wisconsin women's soccer team.

The Badgers tied Michigan and easily defeated Michigan State while celebrating the 25th anniversary of the program to give head coach Dean Duerst the 150th win of his coaching career.

This weekend, however, will be a little different.

Wisconsin heads to the Hoosier state this weekend as they battle two of the best teams in the Big Ten. The Badgers land in Bloomington Friday to take on No. 16 Indiana (4-0-1, 8-2-4) before traveling to West Lafayette to battle Purdue (3-2-0, 10-3-2) Sunday afternoon.

While the Boilermakers currently sit sixth in the conference standings, they do boast the conference's top overall record.

As the Badgers head into what is arguably the most important weekend of the season, they are confident in their game.

"[Indiana] is going to be a good team," UW junior goalkeeper Lynn Murray said. "I think we can handle them. I think that it's going to depend a lot on how we come to play that night.

"We have to be confident in how we play and know that they're out there on the field with us and they have to do as much of the work as we do to win the game," she added.

After missing five matches earlier in the season due to injury, Murray has returned to the field and has been given the start in the team's last five games posting a 3-1-1 mark. While senior goalkeeper Stefani Szczechowski filled in admirably in Murray's absence, it appears as though Murray has regained the starting job.

"It's still something as a staff we review all the time," Duerst said. "You have to keep evaluation of how you train and things that are going on in practice on a daily basis. For now, [Murray] will be starting Friday night; that would be the plan at this point."

Indiana is currently ranked No. 7 in the Big Ten in goals per game, so Murray knows that while the Hoosiers may not score much, they do take advantage of their opportunities. To counter that, Murray said the Badgers are just going to have try and limit the Hoosiers' chances.

"From what we know about [Indiana], they're not a big shooting team, so we have to really shut down on the chances that they do get," she said.

While the Badgers are going to have to play tough defensively, their opponents for the weekend are also very tough defensively. Indiana is first in the conference and No. 21 in the nation with a 0.54 goals-against-average, and the Boilermakers and Hoosiers are ranked one and two in the conference in shutouts with ten and seven, respectively.

It may seem like a tough task, but Duerst is feeling good about his team's chances.

"I like our chances against them because of the way we've been playing offensively," he said. "When you play really solid defensive teams and teams that play really tough, you got to find ways to get end-line crosses and free kicks; things that don't allow them to kind of lock themselves in."

Sophomore Elise Weber said the team's recent 5-1 victory over Minnesota and 3-0 win over Michigan State has shown the offense is starting to click.

"We've been exploding in a couple games offensively so hopefully we bring that on Friday and Sunday and get a couple [wins] against them," she said. "We know we have the offensive ability in us, it's just a matter of whether we bring it out or not."

One of the biggest things the Badgers have going for themselves is they are very balanced offensively. Seven different players have at least two goals on the year, while three have at least four. Six players have at least three assists for the year, and those same six have at least seven points. It's this kind of balance that gives the Badgers an advantage.

"I think people are just stepping up each weekend," Weber said. "We're not just depending on one person to be scoring goals and making all the plays for us. And I think it's good because when teams look at that, it's harder for them to come up with a plan to play against us because there's not just one person to always be watching."

Duerst feels that the conference is wide open at this point, which will make getting two wins against quality opponents even more important.

"Boy, it is going to be a lot of fun," Duerst said of this weekend. "We're eager, we're looking forward to it and we're playing well. We have two very good opponents and it all starts Friday night."