Golden opportunities must be taken advantage of when presented.
The Wisconsin women’s soccer team just missed out on a perfect four-game road trip and a five-game winning streak on Sunday. The Badgers (5-2-0) fell at the hands of the No. 17 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Panthers, 2-1 in overtime.
The Badgers may have entered the week ranked for the first time this season had they prevailed, earning 19 votes in Tuesday’s NSCAA weekly top 25 poll, despite the loss.
“Going forward it gives us a little more motivation to get a win,” senior forward Laurie Nosbusch said. “Any time you lose you kind of get a little bit of a chip on your shoulder and want to make sure you win the next one.”
Wednesday evening gives the road-tested Badgers a reprieve from traveling with a home matchup against the Central Michigan Chippewas at the McClimon Complex.
“I think it is important to reflect and watch film and see the mistakes that we have made, learn from those mistakes and then move on and refocus yourself for the next game,” senior goalkeeper Michele Dalton said, after what she called a great practice. “[The mistakes] are important learning tools for us, but moving forward we need to refocus ourselves, but not necessarily completely forget the mistakes we have made, just learn from them and build off of them.”
A key for Wisconsin will be to jump on the Chippewas early. Both of the Badgers’ losses this year have occurred when the opponent was first to score, and the same is true for Central Michigan whose lone loss came when Kentucky look a 1-0 lead into the locker room at halftime.
Central Michigan (5-1-1) was already tested against a Big Ten foe on Sunday, fighting for a 1-1 tie in double overtime against the Michigan Wolverines.
As the West division leaders of the Mid-American Conference, the Chippewas appear ready to give the Badgers everything they can handle Wednesday. In its many close games, Central Michigan is only allowing an average of 0.57 goals per game, a number the Badgers will surely have to top to come away with a victory.
“The key is focusing on getting services into the box and getting a little more creative and aggressive,” Nosbusch said of the Badgers’ offense.
The fact that both squads are entering Wednesday’s contest coming off overtime games makes for common ground for both opponents, and should this game go into overtime as well, Dalton is prepared to do what it takes to win.
“[Winning overtime games] comes down to effort and drive,” Dalton said. “The team at the end of the game that is most willing to put forth that extra effort when you’re tired mentally and physically exhausted is usually the team that comes out the winner.”
Recent overtime games are not the only thing these two teams have in common. The Badgers and Chippewas both boast a freshman as their leading goal and point scorers.
After winning Big Ten Freshman of the Week in the season opener, forward Cara Walls has been carrying the Wisconsin offense with four goals and nine points, and Laura Gosse leads Central Michigan with three goals and six points despite only starting one game thus far in the season.
While the contest may seem like an everyday non-conference matchup, Wisconsin is looking at this game as a must-win. This is not only a time to correct the mistakes made against Milwaukee, but also to gain positive momentum as they head into the Big Ten season.
It will be a difficult Big Ten schedule right out of the gates.
Defending co-Big Ten Champion Penn State will come to Madison Saturday
afternoon for a game that could have a large impact on how the rest of
the Big Ten season will go for Wisconsin, and following that UW will hit
a Michigan road trip, visiting the Spartans and Wolverines the
following weekend.
“[This game is] not just for statistics purposes, it’s just for morale more than anything,” Dalton said. “I think the team really needs to win at this point. Sunday was a hard loss for us, it really was. I struggled with it, but we need to move on and refocus ourselves for this game. … Pulling out a victory in this game would be huge for us for NCAA purposes going forward and overall morale going into the Big Ten this coming weekend.”
