Coming off their first win of the season, the Wisconsin women (1-3-2) will open a five game home stand by traveling to Tennessee this weekend for a pair of non-conference match ups. Friday night, the Badgers will face the University of Tennessee (2-4-0) followed by a day game Sunday against Vanderbilt (3-3-0).
Shutting out UW Milwaukee 1-0 this past weekend, Wisconsin held on to secure its first win. With the first win in the books, the talk is now all about confidence.
In the win, last year's leading point scorer, junior forward Laurie Nosbusch scored her first goal of the season, and just the teams second. But that was enough for the Badgers to regain some of the confidence that they may have lost.
""After the win, it really lifted us,"" said sophomre midfielder Monica Lam-Feist.
""Their mentality has gotten a little confidence,"" head coach Paula Wilkins said. ""It's hard to lose their first three games and come back, they've done a great job.""
This confidence has translated over into their practice, where the team shifted into preparing for the upcoming road games. And knowing the importance of this training, Wilkins adopted a plan that takes their training one day at a time. In doing so, Wisconsin has been improving its play every time they take to the practice field.
This week in training, one area of focus for the Badgers has been decision making, and the ability to make quick decision on the move. Along with that, they have been working on improving their communication skills. Both are areas that Wisconsin has struggled in early, but with practice has seen go in the positive direction.
Wisconsin's training and preparation are going to be vital to their success this weekend. Facing two teams who have outshot their opponents at home by the combined total of 105-55, the Badgers will need to use all they have learned in order to earn a win.
However, this fact does not seem to bother the Wisconsin women at all, as the mentality in practice has followed a ""we can do it"" rhetoric.
""We always go into practice with the mentality that we are going to win the next weekend,"" said senior goaltender Michele Dalton. ""It doesn't matter [who we play], every time [we] cross this line, [we] walk onto the field, it's business.""
It's all about confidence for this Badger team, and it couldn't have come at a better time for them. Hoping to ride this confidence, Wisconsin looks to close out their non-conference schedule with a .500 record with Big Ten play looming.
""[Two wins] would be huge, then we would be at .500,"" said Lam-Feist.
However, gaining two wins is not the most important thing according to Coach Wilkins. Like her attitude towards training, she looks at games one at a time, only focusing on the next match.
""We are focusing on one game at a time, Tennessee first and getting a result there, then moving on,"" said Wilkins. ""[Getting two wins] is important, but it's not that important.""
