When the Wisconsin women’s soccer season kicked off in mid-August, expectations were high, and the prospects of the upcoming season were bright. After making their way into the NCAA tournament for three out of the last four seasons prior to this year and returning seven starters to the pitch this year, the Badgers appeared to be primed for a breakout season. But after starting the year out hot, the Badgers stumbled through the second half of the season and fell short of making the NCAA tournament, finishing with a final record of 10-7-2 and 5-5-1 in the Big Ten.

The season began promisingly for Wisconsin with three straight nonconference victories, all of which came on the road. Opening the seasoning at Connecticut, UW battled for a 3-2 victory, which was followed by a 4-1 trouncing of Illinois State only two days later. Then, in the second weekend of the season, the Badgers took to the west coast for two games against Oregon and Oregon State. Again, Wisconsin took care of business, disposing of the Ducks by a final of 2-1 and scrapping for a 1-1 double overtime tie to sustain a four-game unbeaten streak.

When Wisconsin returned home for its first home match of the season, it was greeted with an unfortunate 4-3 loss at the hands of Vanderbilt. But that loss was a mere blemish, and the only losing outcome of the first 10 games of the season.

UW proceeded to rattle of four wins in the next five games, taking out Loyola 5-1 in Chicago, UW-Milwaukee 3-0 at home, Purdue 3-1 in West Lafayette, Ind. and Michigan State 2-0 in East Lansing. The only non-win came Sept. 27 in a 0-0 double overtime draw with Michigan, who finished as the second-place team in the conference.

Holding its own against one of the conference’s elite, Wisconsin looked like a team that was in the process of becoming one of those elite.

But that’s where things went sour, and losses and bad breaks came the Badgers’ way in droves, which Wisconsin assistant coach Tim Rosenfeld explained was the reason for the mentality in the second half of the season.

“When something happens then you start thinking,” Rosenfeld said. “Then the mind gets in the way and you start forcing things that shouldn’t be forced and playing balls you shouldn’t be. And your defending starts to go. Then it also becomes you get tired because it’s emotional. It can’t be that way. It has to be very focused. I think all of those things come into play.”

Wisconsin’s second loss of the season came in a 2-1 decision against 15-time defending Big Ten champion Penn State — the Nittany Lions streak of Big Ten titles came to a halt this year. But it was a game Wisconsin wasn’t necessarily expected to win, and the Badgers rebounded two days later to take out Ohio State in overtime.

With only one conference loss, Wisconsin was still in the conference title picture, but then, in the blink of an eye, they were gone. Over the span of 15 days, the Badgers dropped four of their next five games and fell from the upper echelon of the conference standings to third-to-last.

None of the losses were easy to take in, but two stood out from the rest — a double-overtime loss to Nebraska with one second left and a double-overtime loss to Minnesota with just over a minute and a half left in the final overtime session.

Bounces might not have gone the Badgers’ way, and youth played a factor as well, with seven of the Badgers starting 11 either freshmen or sophomores.

But whatever the reason for the late-season struggles, Wisconsin just couldn’t find a way to get over the hump.

“I’m not sure we’re right there yet, if everything we’ve done building up to this point has got us to actually believing, ‘Yeah, this is us now. This is our time,’” Rosenfeld said.

Wisconsin eased to a victory in the final match of the season with a 3-0 win over Northwestern to make the Big Ten tournament, but drew a tough first-round match up with Penn State. The Nittany Lions overwhelmed the Badgers again in the rematch, as they lost 2-0 in what proved to be their final match of the season.

Wisconsin wound up ever so close to a completely different season, but close was not enough. Of the games decided by one goal, Wisconsin was a paltry 4-6, and 12 out of the 19 games were either ties or one-goal affairs.

The good news is that the Badgers lose only one starter, senior midfielder Alev Kelter, from this year’s squad, and will return next season with a wealth of youngsters and a total of 24 players out of 26. Most importantly, the leading scorers from this year, sophomore midfielder Kinley McNicoll (6 goals, 13 assists, 25 total points) and junior forward Cara Walls (9 G, 4 A, 22 total points) will both be returning, along with Big Ten Freshman of the Year freshman forward Rose Lavelle (6 G, 7 A, 19 total points).

Although this season may have had a disappointing end, the future for the youthful Badgers is bright if they can claw their way to the next level.

“I think that’s our step as a program that we really take a good, long look at ourselves and say, ‘Alright, what do we need to do looking forward into next season? What do we need to do to prepare ourselves to get in a circumstance [where] we’re winning these games in the last second or the last minute, rather than giving up these goals?’ With the experience and the work and discipline, we’ll get there,” Rosenfeld said. “We’ve got all the talent in the world, but it’s that next step that’s going to be hard.”