The Wisconsin women’s soccer team (4-4-1 Big Ten, 9-5-2 overall) fell on a cold Thursday night in a double overtime loss to Minnesota (3-4-2, 10-5-2) 1-0 at the McClimon Soccer Complex.
The Badgers put up a significant fight, outshooting Minnesota 32-17 with a total of 11 shots on goal, but were unable to make one count.
“We just didn’t bury our chances,” head coach Paula Wilkins said. “We had 28, 29 shots maybe even more than that and 11 on goal.”
Despite an aggressive back-and-forth for the entirety of regulation, both teams managed to keep the match scoreless, forcing it into two overtime periods.
The Badgers definitely had their chances, hitting the crossbar three times in the last few minutes of regulation. Their offense was led by junior forward Cara Walls who tallied 10 shots, including four on goal.
Going into overtime Wilkins brought her players together and encouraged them to keep fighting.
“She was just like ‘Keep working hard, you’ve got 10, 20 minutes. Put it all on the field, leave everything here. We’ve got two days off so just work as hard as you possibly can,’” freshman defender Kylie Schwarz said.
Minnesota finally lit up the scoreboard in the 108th minute, when junior midfielder Katie Thyken sent a cross to sophomore forward Haley Helverson who blasted the ball into the net.
“I think one of the biggest problems we have is that our defending isn’t very good. I’ll take responsibility as a coach,” Wilkins said.
Even though the Badgers have lost three of their last four games, Walls knows they can get back on track with only two games remaining on the schedule.
“We’ve always known that we were a good team and we could beat anyone so just putting it back together so that we come out with a win,” she said.
Wilkins knows her team can still make the tournament, but they need to put the loss behind them and focus on what’s ahead.
“We have to win the next two games to get into the Big Ten tournament and that’s what we have to focus on,” she said.
With the pressure on for the last two games of the season, the team is aware of everything that’s on the line.
“Just going into the last few games, we have everything to lose,” Schwarz said. “We just have to play our hearts out and leave everything there because we know our season could be over soon.”
