The UW men's soccer team (3-4) heads east to Ohio this weekend for the Dayton Classic, and with them they hope to bring the increased intensity that they showed last weekend. The Badgers are coming off a hard fought split last weekend in which they showed more desire than they had perhaps shown all season. They hope to add to that and notch a couple victories this weekend.
Wisconsin will open up their weekend Friday afternoon (2:30 p.m.) against Indiana University, Purdue University-Indianapolis (1-4-1). The Jaguars seem to be a team that is hard to figure out. They have been blown out at times, yet other times they have played close games with quality opponents. Nonetheless, they are not a team to be taken lightly.
\They are a bit of an enigma and we just have to take care of it using our approach. We are just going to have to come out and dictate play,"" Head Coach Jeff Rohrman said.
The Badgers will cap off the weekend with a Sunday afternoon game (4:30 p.m.) against the host team Dayton (3-0). The Dragons are No. 26 in the latest College Soccer News Top 30, as well as fifth in the NSCAA Great Lakes Region. They have pulled off big victories against Michigan and UW-Milwaukee already this year.
""We are going to have our hands full. They are going to push us to our limits and we are definitely going to have to come out and put a complete game together,"" Rohrman said.
The Badger foes this weekend are two very different teams. One has played very shaky so far this season, whereas the other has come out of the box strong. It will be important for the Badgers to take one game at a time and not to overlook a team like IUPUI.
""It has been an up and down season, but we turned it around last weekend and we're excited about this tournament,"" junior goaltender Eric Hanson said.
""It is going to be important to carry the emotion with us from last weekend. We played with a lot of heart and emotion and if we carry that with us I think we'll come away with a couple wins,"" junior forward/midfielder Nick Van Sicklen said.
The Badgers definitely showed a new spark last weekend. Their five goals were one more than they had put together in the previous five games combined. Junior forward Jed Hohlbein tallied his first hat trick of his Wisconsin career Sunday and Hanson made a season high eight saves in the loss.
""We were in a funk there for a while, but we've changed our personalities a little and I think now we are going to be fine,"" Hanson said.
""I think we are a young team but we are starting to come together and learn each other's tendencies and knowing each other's habits' and now I think we are going to be clicking on all cylinders,"" Van Sicklen said.
The Wisconsin team is full of young players who saw for the first time last week what level they can truly play at. Look for their spirits to be high going into another big weekend of soccer. If they keep their confidence up, this could be just the jump start that they need before upcoming Big 10 conference play begins.
