The Wisconsin women's soccer team hits the road this weekend, taking on Ohio State at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Minnesota at 1 p.m. Sunday.
The Badgers (4-3-2 overall, 1-1-0 Big Ten) opened their conference schedule last weekend, dropping the opener to Illinois 4-2 on Friday, but rebounding to beat Iowa 1-0 on Sunday. It was the second straight weekend the team lost Friday night but responded with a shutout Sunday. This time around, however, UW wants to have stronger efforts on both days.
""That will be really important this weekend,"" head coach Dean Duerst said. ""Just putting together two consistent games. Just win that first one, and that kind of gets your momentum going into that second game.""
If Wisconsin hopes to come out on top Friday night against Ohio State (4-4-1, 0-2-0), they will have to be ready to deal with a Buckeyes squad that loves to attack. While the Buckeyes currently rank just ninth in the Big Ten with 1.11 goals per game, they feature one of the conferences top offensive players in junior midfielder Lara Dickenmann. A member of the Swiss national team and a SoccerBuzz.com First-Team All-American in 2004, Dickenmann has accumulated nine points so far this season on three goals and three assists.
""She's one of their top attacking playmakers,"" Duerst said. ""She can shoot, she can dribble, and she can combine. She's just one of these players that everybody is aware of in the Big Ten.""
On Sunday, UW will face a Minnesota team that is almost the complete opposite of Ohio State. While the Buckeyes play with three players up front, Minnesota (6-3-1, 0-2-0) plays with just two forwards, instead relying on their counterattack.
""They love to defend for 90 minutes,"" Duerst said. ""They love to just defend, defend, defend and then counter. We have to be aware of that.""
The Badgers will rely on senior co-captain Kara Kabellis to carry much of the load offensively. After a bit of a slow start to the season, at least in terms of points, Kabellis has quickly picked up the scoring pace. After failing to score a goal in the first six matches, she has tallied two in the last three games. Sophomore forward Elise Weber will also look to continue to do damage with her corner kicks. Weber has used a corner to pick up an assist in each of the past two weekends.
No matter who is clicking on offense for Wisconsin, however, the team will still need to catch a few breaks here and there. So far, it seems every possible break has gone the opponents' way, but Duerst says it's up to his team to create a few such opportunities for themselves.
""Soccer is a game of moments and luck,"" he said. ""What we need to do is be able to make more of those moments, more of those opportunities, get a little bit of extra bounce. That can turn games sometimes.""
