A little more than halfway into the season the UW women's soccer team (2-2-2 Big Ten, 5-5-3 overall) is sitting in the middle of the Big Ten standings with high hopes for the remainder of the season. The team is coming off a 1-0 victory over the University of Illinois and a 1-1 tie against the University of Iowa. Four of the five loses have come against top 25-ranked opponents, and every loss was decided by one goal.
\We're definitely excited about the way we're playing, tough losses, but you have to be happy about how the team is coming together,"" commented Head Coach Dean Duerst.
Junior midfielder Jenny Kundert has been the star of the Badger team so far this season. Kundert has scored five goals, passed out seven assists, and has accumulated a team high seventeen points. She said she feels that her success can be attributed to the players around her.
""You can't do anything without the girls around you, and we've had a lot of good freshman come in this year. Everybody's been picking up all the slack and making me look better,"" Kundert said.
One of those freshman has been forward Katy Lindenmuth. She has contributed to the success of the team with seven total points, including three goals and one assist.
""Our captains as well as the upper classmen are really encouraging and have helped us get acclimated to the new atmosphere,"" Lindenmuth said.
This week the team has been preparing for its upcoming games with Northwestern Friday and UW-Milwaukee Sunday. The Badgers head into the conference game against the Wildcats with a slight chance at the Big Ten title as they sit at sixth place in the conference standings. Despite all the close games and the .500 record, Duerst still feels that the team is playing with confidence.
""It's a tough thing, but its given us confidence that we can beat anybody,"" said Duerst. ""The story of soccer is that if it's a one goal game it could have gone any way.""
Both Kundert and Lindenmuth feel that the team has yet to play a complete game this year and that these upcoming games are huge for the young team. They feel that it is important for them to come out with intensity and score early.
""We've had trouble finishing off games, we've played well at some points and have not yet played a full 90 minutes of our best soccer,"" Lindenmuth said.
Duerst feels that Northwestern plays a similar style as the Badgers and that this is a very important game to set the tone for the rest of the season. He also feels that at this point in the season the teams offense is finally starting to gel and play to its potential.
One constant problem the team has been plagued with so far this season has been the inability of the team to score when close to the goal, but Duerst thinks that now they are starting to find the right chemistry and the right positioning of their players. He believes that the next few games will decide the rest of the season for this focused team.
""This team is hungry and thirsty for an NCAA home game so that we can start proving ourselves,"" said Duerst.
