The No. 18 Wisconsin women's soccer team held off Boston College 5-3 at home Sunday to stay perfect on the season, extending their winning streak to six games. Against perhaps their toughest opponent so far this young season, UW scored early and often, ultimately surviving a late surge by the Eagles to remain unbeaten.
Junior midfielder/forward Amy Vermeulen accounted for three of the Badgers' five goals as she notched her first hat trick of the season and eighth goal overall. Vermeulen scored the first goal of the game off a corner kick to give the Badgers a 1-0 lead before the Eagles knotted the score just 92 seconds later on a rebound from freshman midfielder Maddie Johnson.
Vermeulen's three goals not only gave her eight on the year, but an even more impressive five goals for the weekend. In UW's home debut Friday night, when they blanked overmatched North Dakota State 3-0, Vermuelen found the net twice in a span of 1:06 late in the second half to secure the win.
The Saskatchewan native is coming off a medical redshirt year which caused her to miss all of last season, but has managed to hit her stride as she leads the undefeated Badgers' explosive offense.
\When you take a corner kick you usually look for someone running in,"" Vermeulen said, referring to her first goal five minutes into the game against Boston College. ""You never expect to score one off the corner but it just happened to be that way today, so it was a lucky little goal, but it was fun.""
It is safe to say that the ease with which Vermeulen has been scoring can hardly be attributed to luck, regardless of what the senior reports.
""I feel like I'm just in the right place at the right time because everybody is playing amazing right now, and it doesn't feel like I'm doing anything too special or spectacular,"" Vermeulen said.
Deferring credit to her teammates, however, may be just as noble since three Badgers-junior midfielder/forward Katy Lindenmuth, sophomore midfielder Kara Kabellis, and sophomore midfielder/forward Alison Preiss-are all tied for second in goals with three apiece. Lindenmuth has been a solid contributor even when she has not scored, assisting on five goals thus far. Three of her five assists came over the weekend-two in the shutout win against NDSU in the home opener, and her latest against Boston College in which she sent it over to Vermuelen who scored the goal that gave Wisconsin the lead they never relinquished. Lindenmuth also tallied a goal to give the Badgers a 3-1 lead, though Preiss's goal to give UW a two-goal lead after Boston College had come back to make the score 3-2 proved to be the game winner.
""[The defender] kind of just misjudged it, so it bounced about three times and I saw that she misread the ball, so I just took advantage of it, volleyed it, and it went in the right place,"" Preiss said. ""We came out with a lot of intensity and we took every chance we had. We put it away. It was a good game ... five goals is huge against Boston College.""
Head Coach Dean Duerst was pleased with his team's play against Boston College, but saw it just as much a learning experience as a reason to celebrate.
""They are an offensively explosive team. They scored four the other night and they obviously showed they've got some special players,"" Duerst said, referring to Boston College's ability to light up the scoreboard. ""They showed some things-we really have to learn a lot defensively. Where we have to be better is some of the simple things on the set plays. They scored two on that and we could have been a little cleaner.
""The third goal was just a couple of poor plays where we didn't clear it, didn't tackle well enough, and those are going to be the difference down the line.""
With conference rivals Penn State and Ohio State making the trip to Madison next weekend, the Badgers have little time to dwell on their latest triumphs, as Coach Duerst and players alike understand.
""We have two huge games this weekend, and I think this was a big game for us to win here, to see what it's like to play a Big Ten game because Boston College is good. It was a good game but I think we are ready to play, so it will be a good week of practice and then we'll see what happens,"" Vermeulen said.
