The University of Wisconsin women’s soccer team is back on track after defeating the Illinois Fighting Illini on Friday night in Champaign.
The final score was 1-0 with the lone goal by the Badgers being scored by star sophomore forward Dani Rhodes. It was nothing out of the ordinary for Rhodes, who has carried a large share of the Badgers offensive load this season and has scored multiple game winners already.
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She delivered in the 86th minute and broke the tied game on her third shot of the game. The game was feeling much like their previous one that resulted in a 0-0 tie against Indiana up until the Rhodes stepped up and scored.
The Badgers offense had been held scoreless for over 176 minutes up until that point, which had been their longest offensive drought this season. This was the 9th goal of the season for Rhodes, who leads the team in offensive categories by a wide margin.
She continues to play like one of the best forwards in the Big Ten and is a massive reason that the Badgers currently find themselves near the top of the Big Ten. The defense, on the other hand, was dominant yet again.
They put together a second consecutive shutout and limited Illinois to only 4 shots, and only one shot on goal. This makes life pretty easy for senior goaltender Caitlyn Clem, who had her 8th shutout of the season in only 15 games.
The Badges are now sitting at an overall record of 10-3-2 and a Big Ten Conference record of 4-2-2. This puts them at 4th place in the Big Ten, behind Ohio State at 7-1, Penn State at 5-1-2 and Minnesota at 5-2-1.
They are still within range to catch Penn State and Minnesota in the standings and will have three games to do so in the regular season, including a matchup against Penn State in the Badgers regular season finale.
Up next for the Badgers is a game against the Northwestern Wildcats on Sunday afternoon in Evanston, Illinois.
