As a Badger-red moon lit up the night sky, the Wisconsin women's soccer team continued their red-hot play, defeating in-state rival Marquette 3-0. The Badgers have now won four games in a row, and have improved their season record to 4-1.
With the Badgers stretching their winning streak to four, a significant record was broken in the process as Head Coach Dean Duerst garnered career victory No. 109 at UW. He has now surpassed Greg Ryan as the winningest women's soccer coach in school history. Duerst's overall record at Wisconsin is now 109-73-23 since taking the head coaching position in 1994. The team celebrated the coach's accomplishment by dumping a cooler of water over Duerst following the game. The drenched Duerst was fairly modest about his feat after the game.
\It's kind of neat now that it [the record] has actually been broken,"" Duerst said.
The night may have ended in a cold shower for Duerst, yet throughout the night the Badgers dished out their old brand of cold soccer justice as the Badgers controlled the tempo for much of the contest, placing significant offensive pressure on Marquette. This pressure led to cornerkicks which allowed the Badgers to pounce on the Golden Eagles. In the first half, 22 minutes into the game, senior forward Jenny Kundert scored on a rebound off a cornerkick. Freshman midfielder Kara Kabellis collected one of her two assists on the play.
""Getting a corner [kick] came through our pressure. We kind of set a tone,"" Duerst said.
With significant offensive pressure, the Badgers headed into halftime with a 1-0 lead. Never satisfied, the coaching staff continued to urge the players to continue placing pressure on the Marquette defense. Although co-captain Kundert says that while the coaching staff's advice was helpful, it was not necessary.
""We didn't even need to hear from our coaches about the pressure,"" Kundert said. ""We knew coming in to the game that we wanted to be the state champs. We need to take care of Milwaukee and Marquette to do that.""
The Badgers continued to bring the heat to Marquette in the second half. Their offensive surge netted the Badgers two more goals, beginning with sophomore midfielder Katy Lindenmuth. The final goal of the night was scored by Kabellis, who ripped a lineshot from close to 20 yards away. However, like other members of her team she takes no individual credit and places a greater emphasis on the team.
""Katy [Lindenmuth] made a great move and I was just waiting for [the ball]. She put it in the right spot and I just shot it well,"" Kabellis said. Kabellis had three points on the night, scoring a goal and recording two assists.
The offense is clearly this team's strength as they have scored three goals in each of its last four games.
Three may be the big number for the Badgers of late, although the most impressive number on the scoreboard was the zero denoting how many goals the Golden Eagles scored. Allowing only two shots on goal, the Badger defense left Marquette's offense bewildered as they recorded their first shut out.
By controlling loose balls and maintaining offensive pressure, UW dominated their in-state rivals, tallied up their most impressive victory of the season and gave Badger fans something to ""Jump Around"" about.
