Carrying a two-game losing streak into last weekend, the University of Wisconsin men’s soccer team (2-2-2) was in dire need of a strong performance. After a win over perennial powerhouse Oakland (3-3-1) and a draw against No. 9 UC-Santa Barbara (5-1-1), the Badgers got more than they could have expected. Senior midfielder Brandon Miller and senior goalie Alex Horwath were awarded the Big Ten offensive and defensive Player of the Week awards, respectively, after each turned in tremendous performances over the weekend.
In Friday’s 1-0 victory over Oakland at the Milwaukee Panther Invitational, Miller split the defense and put in his first goal of the year from eight yards out in the 69th minute. In addition, Miller posted four points, played all 200 minutes of the weekend, and was named to the all-tournament team. Horwath, meanwhile, played with an injured hand and stopped all five shots he faced to turn in his 16th career shutout. Two days later, Miller tied the game in the 82nd minute with another clutch goal, and Horwath had a season-high eight saves.
“It’s great,” head coach Todd Yeagley said of the recognition. “It’s a great reflection upon the program.”
While Miller and Horwath were certainly proud of their laurels, both were quick to recognize the performance of the entire team as being more important.
“It’s an honor, but it’s more of a team award,” Horwath said. “Both [games] the defense, just the overall team defense, really stepped up. It’s just that I’m the guy in the goal, so when goals don’t go in, I get the credit. It’s more of a team defense award than anything else.”
For Horwath, this week marked the second time this year he was the defensive Big Ten Player of the Week, as well as the fourth time in his collegiate career. Meanwhile, Miller was recognized for the first time in his four years at UW.
“It does mean a lot to me,” Miller said of winning the award. “But it also kind of represents a team award. I think both the attacking offensive players and the defensive players deserve it because coach always preaches, ‘Defend as a team, and attack as a team.’ I was kind of in the right spots in a couple situations and snuck in a few goals. More so, it’s more of a team thing than anything.”
This week, Miller and the Badgers will have to find more of those spots as they begin conference play against No. 9 Indiana (3-2-1) Friday night under the lights at the McClimon Soccer Complex. Labeled by many as the preseason conference favorite, the Hoosiers will provide a stout early-season test for Miller, Horwath and the rest of the Badgers.
“My expectation is that the guys are going to be coming out and giving a really, really good effort on Friday,” Yeagley said. “We’ll be prepared and focused for a really, very talented Indiana team. That’s really all I’m looking for at this point.”
To keep that focused mindset and their preparation at premium importance, Yeagley, Miller and Horwath all agreed while the awards are nice, they pale in comparison to the significance of playing good soccer and winning games.
“The accolades are [only] byproducts of good performance and good results,” Yeagley said.
Miller echoed his coach’s win-first sentiment, stating the team has much bigger goals to achieve.
“We have some great opportunities coming up to get some good results,” Miller said. “We definitely plan on improving every week, which I think we’ve done, so that at the end of the year we’re ready to go in the Big Ten tournament and hopefully the NCAA tournament.”
While the Badgers are fully dedicated to their pursuit of victory, particularly during the upcoming stretch of five consecutive games against ranked teams, Yeagley did admit it was somewhat rare and exciting for a team to sweep the weekly conference awards.
“It’s rare that you have two in the same week,” Yeagley said of Miller and Horwath. “However, we’ll accept it; anytime they decide to throw any award our way, we certainly will accept it.”