2002.
That was the last time the Wisconsin men’s soccer team won four games before losing its first. After sweeping its weekend series down south against South Florida and Florida Gulf Coast, Wisconsin finds itself the owner of a 4-0-1 record — the best in the Big Ten.
“It’s a whole different vibe,” senior co-captain Chris Prince said of the team’s mood compared to other seasons. “The team is just feeling better, the coaches are feeling better and we come to practice ready to compete which makes it more competitive.”
Coaches from across the nation have taken notice of the Badgers’ hot start as Wisconsin is now ranked 25th in the nation in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America Rankings, its highest ranking since it was No. 21 in 2002.
“It definitely was a goal of ours and what comes along with getting higher in the rankings is an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament,” Prince said.
Before they can focus on the NCAA tournament, the Badgers have two more non-conference games before Big Ten play begins, with a match against Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne on Friday and against Gonzaga on Sunday in the UIC Soccer Classic.
The weekend will serve as a homecoming for Badgers head coach John Trask, who served as head coach for the University of Illinois-Chicago from 2005-2009. During his time with the Flames, Trask and his teams found success, winning three Horizon League regular season titles and earning three NCAA tournament berths (2006-2008).
“When I first went back and saw some of the guys, it brought back a lot of memories for me,” Trask said. “Now, the fun thing for me is to bring a group of Wisconsin players, a few of which are from Chicago, who I think the world of, to a beautiful grass field with beautiful lighting and under the shadows of the Sears Tower. It’s a great environment for a college soccer game.”
Unfortunately, the reunion will stop with the visit to campus, as the Badgers are not slated to play the Flames.
The match against IPFW is about as uneven, record-wise, as you can get, with the Badgers’ undefeated record against the 0-5-1 record of IPFW. The Mastodons played to a draw in its opening match of the season against Northern Kentucky and have since dropped five straight contests.
Of course, the lure of sports is the underdog story, and with this being such a one-sided advantage (on paper), the fear of being a nationally-ranked team and losing to a team that hasn’t won a game by overlooking them is one the Badgers hope doesn’t come to fruition.
“First we have a huge game Friday,” junior defenseman AJ Cochran said. “Our concentration is on that game first and producing a result. Once Friday is over, then we will start to prepare for Gonzaga. Both games this weekend are going to be hard fought games and our team is looking forward to the challenges.”
Prince echoed Cochran’s sentiments, saying, “We’re not worried about 2-0, we’re worried about 1-0. We have 13 seniors so we’ve played in enough games together that we can take that pressure (of being nationally ranked) and use it to play to the best of our ability.”
So far this season, opponents have outscored the Mastodons 13-3 — a number that is expected to be further aggravated with the Badgers coming to town, outscoring their opponents 11-6.
As for Gonzaga, the Bulldogs are 3-1-0 and have posted three consecutive shutouts behind senior goalkeeper Ryan Caballero.
Caballero was named the West Coast Conference Men’s Soccer Player of the Week last week, and the 6-foot-1 California native has allowed just one goal in 376 minutes this season.
On the offensive side of the ball, the Bulldogs are a second-half team. Gonzaga has scored four of its five goals this season in the second half or overtime and have carried a lead going into halftime just once this year (vs. UC Santa Barbara).
“Gonzaga is a very strong team,” Trask said. “In terms of people asking who we’ve played yet, their record and results puts them in the same category as us — the early 20s of the national rankings.”
