[media-credit name=’GREG DIXON/Herald photo’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′][/media-credit]

The University of Wisconsin women’s soccer team has played just shy of 315 minutes since scoring its last goal, which came 32 seconds into the second half against Illinois on Sept. 26.

In the same span, Wisconsin opponents have scored eight times, leading to four Badger losses. The once-strong UW offense that put up nine goals in two games en route to winning the Hoosier Classic has scored only one goal through four games against Big Ten opponents.

“We have some difficulty when we don’t get the result right away,” head coach Paula Wilkins said. “We get a little frustrated. In the Ohio State game, we had a bunch of [missed] chances in the beginning of the games and lost a lot of confidence.”

Confidence is something that has played a major role in the Badgers’ success so far this season, with much of their offense comprised of freshmen. They built a lot of it after finishing the non-conference season 6-2-1, but following four losses in the Big Ten, that confidence appears to be gone.

“Our confidence was a little bit shaken up with the past couple games and not being able to win,” freshman Leigh Williams said. “If we come out strong and apply what we’ve been doing in practice, I think we’ll be able to put a few in this weekend.”

Wisconsin’s offense has been slowed by a problem that has lingered throughout much of the season: its inability to start strong in games. Of the 10 goals the Badgers have allowed in Big Ten competition, eight have been scored in the first half of play.

“We’ve waited to react to other teams more than going out there and putting our force onto our opponents,” Williams said. “We’ve just reacted to what they’ve given us and haven’t imposed our will.”

The Badgers continued to talk about their need to play stronger in the first half this week, and it remains something they believe they can fix going into Friday’s game against Indiana.

In fact, Wilkins believes her team has gotten past its inability to play well in the first half and is now focused on more specific situations.

“It’s not even two halves now; it’s like moments in the game,” Wilkins said. “So being focused in every moment [is important]. We’ll have parts of the halves that we do well and then parts of the halves where one little mistake adds up to a goal, which then causes a domino effect.”

Another problem the Badgers have had recently has been an inability to maintain possession. Wisconsin (6-6-1, 0-4-0 Big Ten) has failed to create chances offensively because it cannot maintain control of the ball.

As a result, the cardinal and white have been forced to play defense more frequently throughout games, putting a strain on their defenders and leading to opportunities for opposing offenses.

“We haven’t been creating as many chances, and the few that we’ve gotten we haven’t been able to finish because we’ve been defending for most of the time,” freshman Laurie Nosbusch said. “We use up all our energy to stop the other team, and we haven’t been able to get on the offensive that much.”

In order to solve its problem with maintaining possession, Wisconsin went back to the drawing board to come up with a new offense it hopes will make a difference.

“We’ve worked on a new formation intended to try to stop the other teams from being able to counterattack on us,” Nosbusch said. “Also, to try to get better possession of the ball in the front half, we’ve been working on a lot of drills with just competing with each other and being physical, refusing to let the other person beat you.”

Something the Badgers hope will work in their favor offensively is the opportunity to play at home for two weeks and build confidence before heading out for its last road trip of the season.

“I think it will help us tremendously to play in front of our home crowd,” Nosbusch said. “We need to have pride in our team and our field and not let anyone come into our field and embarrass us. We need to come out and just attack them and show them what we’re all about.”