After a dominant 5-0 blowout victory over Toledo last Friday evening, the University of Wisconsin women’s soccer team has moved onto the second round of the NCAA tournament and will be matching up against #1 seed South Carolina on Friday night.
That game featured Grace Douglas’s first two goals of her season, as well as goals by Lauren Rice, Jordan McNeese, and Allie Winterfield. This was by far the Badgers most dominant performance of the season and one that has to have Wisconsin feeling good about their upset chances against South Carolina.
Women’s soccer: Badgers dominate Hawkeyes in final road challenge
They have now won 4 out of their past 5 games, with all of those victories being shutouts. The defense has been there all season for the Badgers, but only recently has the offense began to rise up. South Carolina is currently 16-2-1 on the season, including 8-0-1 at home, which is where this game will be played.
Their only losses this year are against Wake Forest and Arkansas, which occurred in their first game of the SEC tournament. They are coming off a 3-0 victory over Alabama State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last week. They are led in scoring by Savannah McCaskill and Elexa Bahr with 7 and 8 goals, respectively.
They have been impressive on both ends of the field this season and had no problem at all with SEC competition. They went 9-0-1 against the SEC and have pitched shutouts in 14 of their 19 games. This will be a tough challenge for the Badgers, who have had some struggles offensively this year.
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They will likely need to play a strong defensive game and keep South Carolina from scoring if they want a decent chance at the upset. Goaltender Caitlyn Clem has been a huge presence for the Badgers all year long and this would be the perfect chance for her to come up big for Wisconsin in their biggest game of the season.
This 2nd round game will happen on Friday evening at 5 p.m. in Columbia, South Carolina in a game that will decide each team’ postseason fate. It will be available to watch on the SEC Network. Tune in to watch the Badgers attempt to upset top-ranked South Carolina in a must-win match-up.
