[media-credit name=’GREG DIXON/Herald photo’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′][/media-credit]October has been a tumultuous month for the University of Wisconsin men’s soccer team, which has seen its record fall faster than multicolored leaves around campus.

The Badgers (5-5-5 overall, 0-3-2 Big Ten) have struggled to put the nail in the coffin during close games and have lost or tied the last six games while being outscored 13-6.

The home turf of the McClimon Soccer Complex has been particularly unkind to the Cardinal and White recently, as the Badgers have failed to notch a win at home since their Sept. 26 romping of Northern Illinois.

“We’ve been in games, but we’ve had some times that were disappointing,” UW head coach Jeff Rohrman said. “I think at the end of the day, our guys know that we have to get some W’s and get on a bit of a roll as we prepare ourselves for the Big Ten Tournament.”

As October begins to draw to a close, the Badgers will be looking to quell their winless streak when they match up against the Oakland University Grizzlies (7-5-2, 4-0 Summit Conference) Wednesday at 4 p.m. at the McClimon Soccer Complex. The Grizzlies, who have won three of their last five games, will be no cakewalk for a Badgers team that has been plagued by missed opportunities and breakdowns on both sides of the ball.

“We’ve played well, but we just haven’t had many bounces go our way,” goalkeeper Alex Horwath said. “We’ve outplayed many of the teams so far, yet we just haven’t had much luck go our way compared to the first five games of the season.”

If the Badgers want to come out of tomorrow’s game with a win, they must play a complete game on both offense and defense, something that has eluded them for the better part of the season.

“We do a very good job at coming out fired up and intense, but we seem to lose that over the course of the game,” sophomore forward Brandon Miller said. “We need to do a better job of sustaining [momentum] and just take care of the little things, and hopefully that will allow us to avoid the misfortunes we’ve had in the last few games.”

Offensively, the Badgers must be in top shape if they hope to light up the scoreboard against a challenging Grizzlies defense.

“We know they are going to come out ready to play. They’ve played three Big Ten teams so far this season, and they have been close games every time,” Miller said. “We know they are going to be up to the challenge.”

UW junior forward Victor Diaz, who leads the Badgers with 12 points on four goals and four assists, must be heavily involved in the offense to give the Badgers momentum. So far this season, Diaz has gelled nicely with Miller, who has shown a deft passing touch that has led to many scoring opportunities. Rohrman is counting on the two offensive dynamos to create mismatches with the Grizzlies defenders to open things up for the Badgers tonight.

“We obviously need a win. We need to get momentum going into the Big Ten tournament during these last three regular season games,” Miller said. “It is important that we win all of these games, and it starts Wednesday.”

On the defensive side of the ball, Wisconsin needs to communicate well and be in position to thwart scoring chances for Oakland. Oakland’s Sebastian Harris and Stew Givens, who are tied with 10 points, are the main threats to UW’s defense and must be accounted for at all times. It will be up to Horwath, who may play despite a strained abdominal muscle, to direct players in order to give himself the best chance to make saves.

Tonight’s matchup against Oakland is the penultimate home game for Wisconsin before it wraps up its home stand against Big Ten powerhouse Indiana University Nov. 4. With the Big Ten tournament in its sights, a complete game against Oakland and consecutive wins at home are just what Wisconsin needs heading into the toughest stretch of the season.