[media-credit name=’GREGORY DIXON/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]It is not uncommon for a team’s identity to change over the course of a season. This is especially true when you take the inevitable injuries, maturing underclassmen and lineup changes into account.

In looking for their first win in seven contests, the Badgers have gone from a team that struggled to find offense until the second half of games to a team looking for everything but that.

For a team that didn’t score more than a goal in a game until the end of September (a 2-2 tie with Michigan), this surge in offensive production has definitely been both a blessing and a curse.

“I think the biggest thing we need to work on as a team is learning how to deal with leads,” coach Jeff Rohrman said. “We’ve had leads in eight of the 11 games we have tied or lost, which is unbelievable. It shows you how ready and prepared we are, but unfortunately, it seems that when we do give up some momentum or have a little adversity, we haven’t dealt with it well.”

Since its last win against Northern Illinois exactly one month ago, the team has posted a less-than-satisfactory record of 0-4-3 and has been shut out twice — both against conference foes Northwestern and Michigan State. As painful as those losses might have been, nothing compares to the past two games against Penn State and Oakland. Both games should have resulted in Badger wins had the team been able to hold onto the early leads they built in the first halves of both contests.

“We have to put a whole game together if we want to get a win,” junior forward Victor Diaz said. “Scoring early doesn’t mean anything if we let up on defense the rest of the game. We can’t afford to be giving up so many late goals.”

Hopefully some of the lineup changes Rohrman plans on making in preparation for this weekend’s game against University of Illinois-Chicago (6-4-5, 2-1-3 Horizon League) will be the answer the players and coaches have been looking for these past couple of weeks.

“We inserted (freshman defender) Cale Cooper into the lineup to try and help us get a little more size and aerial presence in the back line,” Rohrman said. “When we give up three goals, it’s a sign that maybe we need to make a couple of changes. If we score two or three goals, we shouldn’t be on the losing side at the end of games.”

The return of sophomore defender Taylor Waspi should also help jolt the ailing defense back to its beginning-of-the-year form.

“Having a healthy Taylor Waspi back on the field will be very important for us,” Rohrman said. “His blue collar mentality, ability in the air and physical presence are all things that I feel we have been lacking a bit. I have no doubt that his presence will be felt immediately.”

With Cooper standing at 6-foot-2-inches and Waspi standing at an even 6 feet, the Badgers will be sending out their biggest lineup yet on defense. They’ll need it playing against senior midfielder Cesar Zambrano who has scored a team-leading 14 points this season and is an All-American candidate.

Four-year starter and senior captain B.J. Goodman was recently moved up to a midfield role for the Penn State game, a change that Rohrman felt helped spark a stagnant attack to score just 57 seconds into the game.

Despite the lack of wins, Rohrman still feels as though his team is not far away from regaining the swagger that lifted them into the top 20 earlier this year for the first time in nearly a decade.

“We need to impress upon one another that no matter what happens, we need to fight through, lift each other up and inspire the rest of the guys on the team to get back to how we know we can play.”