The Wisconsin women's soccer team (2-0-1 Big Ten, 7-3-1 overall) looks to build on their early success in the Big Ten season as they return home to the McClimon Soccer Complex for two games against Minnesota (1-1-1 Big Ten, 4-6-1 overall) at 7 p.m. Thursday and Ohio State (2-0-1 Big Ten, 7-3-1 overall) at 1 p.m. Sunday.
The Golden Gophers are coming off their first Big Ten defeat of the season, losing to Michigan State by a score of 3-0 Sunday. Minnesota is led offensively by freshman forward Taylor Uhl who has team-high seven goals and 15 overall points.
Defensively, the Gophers are anchored by junior goalkeeper Cat Parkhill, who leads the team with 39 saves. Despite a mediocre record, Minnesota is an aggressive offensive team, averaging almost 15 shots on goal per game.
""We're looking forward to the Border Battle game against Minnesota on Thursday,"" Wisconsin head coach Paula Wilkins said. ""That'll be our prime focus for right now, with a Minnesota team that's always very dangerous and returning from a Sweet Sixteen performance.""
""Anybody who's from Wisconsin knows that the game against Minnesota, no matter where the teams are in their season, is a really important game and an emotional game,"" she said.
No. 25 Ohio State is undefeated thus far in their Big Ten season and are coming off two weekend wins over Illinois, 2-1, and Northwestern, 2-0. The Buckeyes are led offensively by junior forward Tiffany Cameron, who has three goals for the year.
For the second straight week the Badgers offense will take on a Big Ten Defensive award winner as Buckeyes' senior goalkeeper Katie Baumgardner was named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week for her outstanding performance against Illinois and Northwestern, which means the Badgers will need to be sharp offensively.
""I still think that we need to do better in the front half of the field and being a little bit more dynamic,"" Wilkins said.
""We spend a lot of energy defensively, so we need to be able to generate some more offense to give our defense a little bit of a break,"" she said.
