The 2011 Wisconsin women’s soccer season is underway, and it has featured a tough schedule with positive results. Entering a four-game road trip that began Friday, the Badgers have already taken on three Top-25 teams: Marquette in an exhibition match, at defending national champion and No. 1 Notre Dame and No. 23 Washington at home in the McClimon Complex.

Wisconsin sits at 2-1 with victories over Washington and UW-Green Bay, with the loss coming at Notre Dame, 2-0. The tough non-conference schedule is all part of the design, a tool to get the Badgers ready for conference play later this season.

“We schedule it that way so we can figure out what we need to fix,” head coach Paula Wilkins said. “Anytime you are playing the defending nation champions at their home field, you’re going to be put under some pressure and I think it was important to get young players acclimated.”

The higher level of competition benefits everyone – not just the new class of freshmen – and fifth-year senior goalkeeper Michele Dalton knows the Badgers need to push themselves like a top team all season.

“Everyone is engaged in the full 90 minutes against great opponents,” Dalton said. “Just the intensity is a completely different level against a Top-10 team, and as a team we need to bring that to every game not just against Top-10 opponents; to be successful we need to do it against every single opponent that we face.”

The tough early season schedule will be a key ingredient to the Badgers improving from a third-place finish in the Big Ten a year ago. A Big Ten title is in mind for the Badgers, even if the polls don’t reflect an increase in expectations. Wisconsin is picked to finish third again in the preseason media polls, and Wisconsin senior defender Meghan Flannery is looking forward to playing spoiler.

“We haven’t gotten the time of day in terms of ranking, so that puts no pressure on us and we’re just kind of out to beat everyone because evidently nobody thinks that we’re a big team to beat, and we want to show them what we got,” Flannery said.

UW’s competitive spirit starts in practice, and the team recognizes that no starting position is safe.

“We are a lot deeper, so there is more competition in practice and it raises our level of what we are trying to do,” Wilkins said. “I think that is going to push people to be better.”

Assembling a team that has the ability to be competitive in practice has been in the works for five years since Wilkins arrived from Penn State, and Flannery has seen the growth of the program year after year.

“The improvements that we have made, starting from my freshman year, not having the best season and then progressively getting better and better and winning bigger and bigger games. I am excited about this year to see what we can build on that,” Flannery said.

The maturing roster will be a beneficial asset to the Badgers in pushing through to the top of the conference. Wisconsin boasts seven seniors and 10 juniors who will lead the team and help develop several freshmen who have already begun starting games, including forward Cara Walls, who recently was awarded Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors.

Senior forward Laurie Nosbusch recognizes it is partly her responsibility to make sure everyone is focused and together.

“(The seniors) need to make everyone understand that this is our last year, this is our last chance to make a difference for the program,” Nosbusch said. “We have all accepted that and taken that on as a challenge to just get everyone else on the same page with us and make them as desperate as we are to fight for every last game that we can.”

“The fact that we have people competing for spots every day now. It makes everybody a little bit better, a little bit more on edge and sharper in practices and games.”

One early season indicator for whether Wisconsin will succeed in accomplishing its goals for this season is all about converting its in-game chances.

“We have created more opportunities now that we did a year ago at this time,” Wilkins said. “(But) though we have created a lot of opportunities, I think we need to finish a lot more of them and our ability to maintain and be consistent needs to be better throughout the game.”