[media-credit name=’GREGORY DIXON/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]Women’s cross country hopes for another successful season.

The Wisconsin women's cross country team kicks off the 2007 season Saturday as it travels to Platteville, Wis., to compete in the UW Platteville Open.

Fourth-year head coach Jim Stintzi will send eight runners to Platteville this weekend: Emily Brody, Kira Cerroni, Leah Coyle, Sara McKinley, Carli Ditscheit, Melissa Manke, Kailie Seneczko and Karlye Wolff.

This year's Badger squad comes off its best season in seven years after finishing fourth at the 2006 NCAA Championships.

"I think that there is a chance that we could be better than last year. We have the potential to have the same type of season. The personnel is a little bit different, but the people who were role players last season have gained tons of experience the last couple of years," Stintzi said.

Last season at the Big Ten Conference championships, UW took second, its highest finish in the conference since 2000 when Wisconsin won the Big Ten title. Three Badgers placed in the top 14, earning All-Big Ten honors. A week later at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional, Wisconsin again notched a second-place finish as five Badgers finished in the top 25 and earned all-region honors.

This season, the Badgers return 13 letterwinners from last year's NCAA qualifying team and welcome a strong incoming freshman class.

"I hope that we can build on what we started last year," Stinzi said. "We ran well at the end of the season, and we finished strong."

Wisconsin returns a number of runners who were vital to last season's success. Sophomore Hanna Grinaker is coming off a spectacular rookie season in which she joined former Badger Katrina Rundhaug in becoming the first UW All-Americans since 1986. The 2006 Big Ten Freshman of the Year and team MVP placed 13th at the NCAA meet, becoming the first Wisconsin freshman since Suzy Favor in 1986 to earn All-America honors.

Men’s soccer challenges the Pac-10 at the Cal Legacy Classic

The Wisconsin men's soccer team heads out to California to take part in the 11th annual Cal Legacy Classic with two games this weekend in Berkeley, Calif. The Badgers will take on Stanford on Friday before facing No. 7 California Sunday.

The matches will be UW's first games on the road after hosting the Middleton Sports and Fitness Invitational last weekend. After falling to tournament champion Tulsa in the opening game, the Badgers responded by defeating Western Michigan 1-0 in head coach Jeff Rohrman's 100th game in charge of the team to clinch a second-place finish.

While every team would prefer to win its season-opening match, last Friday's loss could be a sign of good things to come for Wisconsin. Rohrman's two most successful teams at UW overcame an opening day loss to finish the season with a winning percentage above .500 (.523 in 2003 and .526 in 2006).

Stanford (0-0-1), which finds itself just outside the NSCAA Top 25, poses a strong challenge for UW in its first game away from McClimon Soccer Complex. The Cardinal came back from a late 2-0 deficit to tie top-ranked and defending NCAA champion UC-Santa Barbara last week in the team's 2007 debut.

Women’s golf ready to tee season off

The Wisconsin women's golf team kicks off the 2007 fall season this weekend at the University Ridge golf course as host of the 12-team Badger Invitational.

The Badger Invitational is the first of five events on the fall schedule for Wisconsin, and it is the lone home event. Wisconsin took second place at the invitational last year behind a first place finish from then-junior Katie Elliot. At the 2006 invitational, Elliot tallied nine birdies, including one on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff, en route to her first collegiate tournament win. Then-sophomore Jeana Dahl also recorded her best career finish at eighth-place.

The Badgers are in position to have similar success this year with nine letterwinners returning. That group includes the team's top four golfers: Elliot, Dahl, junior Isabel Alvarez and sophomore Kelsey Verbeten.

This year, four newcomers will debut at the Badger Invitational including freshmen Carly Werwie and Zahra Shah and redshirt freshman Valya Spengel. Junior transfer Natasha Lopez-Moreira Barudi joins the squad as a two-time WIAA state high school individual champion, three-time all state honoree and a two-time Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Player of the Year.

Aside from Wisconsin, Central Florida, Drake, Georgetown, Illinois State, Iowa State, Big Ten Conference foe Minnesota, Northern Iowa, Oklahoma, Samford, Southern Methodist and Xavier are scheduled for the invitational.