Wisconsin struggled to find the back of the net over the weekend, walking away with a 1-1 tie against Milwaukee and a scoreless draw against Drake.
The action started at McClimon Soccer Complex one minute and 56 seconds into the game Thursday night. Milwaukee midfielder Callie O’Donnell scored, putting the Panthers up 1-0. It would be the last goal the Badgers would let up all weekend.
The Badgers (1-1-2) were unable to find an answer to the visitors in the first half, but outshot the Panthers (2-0-1) 9-6 during that time.
In the 76th minute, Wisconsin found its answer, and it was senior midfielder Micaela Powers. Powers sent a shot into the left corner of the net, scoring an unassisted goal to tie the game, 1-1.
"It was a very much-needed goal, it came at an important time,” Powers said. “Obviously we had a lot of pressure on us so we needed to get out of that. Once we had that goal, we opened up the field and we could start playing our game again."
With the clock winding down and the game tied, two periods of overtime, followed with no goals, ended the game in a draw.
Offensively, the Badgers were dominant even though the scoreboard did not show it. Overall, they outshot Milwaukee 18-9 and came away with 11 corner kicks to the Panthers’ two. Led by freshman Dani Rhodes’ four shots, the Badgers were not shy about attempting to get to the net. Senior Rose Lavelle came away with a team-high two shots on goal.
Junior goalie Caitlyn Clem had five crucial saves for the Badgers, while Mallory Geurts of Milwaukee tallied seven.
The Drake Bulldogs (2-0-1) came to McClimon Sunday for the first meeting between the two teams and, like Thursday’s game, went into double overtime. After a penalty kick by Lavelle hit the post in the ninth minute of the first overtime, neither team was able to generate a good scoring chance.
The Badgers once again had a dominant game offensively, outshooting the Bulldogs 24-4 and earning 15 corner kicks to Drake’s one. Lavelle led the team with eight shots, including three on goal, and Rhodes tallied three shots, one on goal.
Head coach Paula Wilkins praised her team’s offensive effort, but acknowledged that there needed to be more done.
“The biggest thing is we need to find a way to win,” Wilkins said. “If we get this many shots and that many opportunities and corner kicks, we need to find a way to do that and we need to find out who the answer for that is going to be.”
Defensively, the Badgers isolated the Bulldogs in their own half of the field for the majority of the game and made sure that Clem wasn’t tested much. She had to make just one save, while Drake’s Haley Morris finished with five.
“I think we played pretty good, defensively,” Rhodes said. “We were constantly on offense, and I think that helped. We didn’t really let them cross the half field; we maintained it in our attacking half.”
Next up for the Badgers is a road trip to northern California to take on two top-25 teams. They begin play No. 1 Stanford Thursday and No. 20 Santa Clara Sunday.
