The Wisconsin Women’s Soccer team (3-2-1 Big Ten, 8-3-2 overall) knows they have to dig in this weekend with two Big Ten opponents coming to town in No. 22 Nebraska (5-1-0, 10-3-1) and Iowa (3-3-0, 11-3-0).
The Badgers return home to the McClimon Soccer Complex on Friday to try and get back to their winning ways. Wisconsin takes on the Cornhuskers Friday at 7 p.m.
This marks the sixth meeting between the two teams with Wisconsin holding a 1-3-1 mark, with the Badgers looking to beat Nebraska for the first time in Madison. Wisconsin has yet to beat a ranked foe this year going 0-1-1, but they believe Friday will be a different story.
Junior forward Cara Walls, leading the team in goals (7), knows that this weekend is going to be tough.
“Nebraska is a good hard physical team,” she said. “If we match their physicality we should be able to play with them, but if we don’t come out ready to battle, they will have the upper hand. Every team in the Big Ten is good, every game is hard, there are no easy games.”
After suffering their first road loss of the season to Illinois last Saturday, the team knows that if they put in the work, they still have a shot at making a championship run.
“In the Big Ten you never know what’s going to happen on a game to game basis, we’re in a solid position right now and we have a lot to play for,” freshman defender Kylie Schwarz said.
Walls has the same mentality. “We feel like we have a lot to prove. Coming out and proving that we are the better team, we can win a Big Ten championship,” she said.
The second game of the weekend is slated for Sunday at noon when the Badgers face off against Iowa. Head coach Paula Wilkins’ knows the biggest key for her team against Nebraska and Iowa is to match their intensity as well as their physicality. She likes what she has seen this week in practice in preparation for the weekend.
“The energy in our practice is very good and I’m excited to see them play tomorrow.”
She also knows that her team must focus on one game at a time in order to get the results that they want. “We don’t even mention the game (against Iowa), we focus right now on Nebraska. For them it’s just one game at a time. Both these games are significant games for us.”
Iowa won last year’s meeting 2-1, but the Badgers hold a 9-4-2 lead over the Hawkeyes in the all-time series between the two schools.
Wisconsin is looking to come out strong from the start and net the first goal of the game. “We're looking to improve offensively.” Walls said. “Last game we had a lot of chances we didn’t put away so coming out and trying to score first is the key.”
