Men’s soccer blanks Marquette

It's not kind to kick others when they're down, unless, of course, they're your in-state rivals. The Badgers (2-1-1 Big Ten, 8-4-2 overall) shot down the Marquette Golden Eagles 1-0 Wednesday night in Milwaukee and extended MU's winless streak to 13 games. ""Overall, it was a very good performance on our part,"" Wisconsin head coach Jeff Rohrman said. ""We played the way we are capable of tonight. We did the little things well, and it was certainly our best performance in the past couple weeks."" The victory marks UW's fourth in five games and fourth straight against the Golden Eagles (0-8-0 Big East, 1-12-1). Sophomore midfielder Kenny Dix provided the game's only score in the 26th minute when he tallied the first goal of his college career. Junior Erik Ortega earned the assist off of Dix's 22-yard shot. Continually pressuring Marquette goalkeeper Marc Dettman, UW outshot the Golden Eagles 18-6. Wisconsin also topped MU in shots on goal 11-3. Badger goalie Jake Settle snagged three saves and kept the struggling Golden Eagles off the scoreboard. Marquette has not recorded a goal since a 3-1 loss to the Cincinnati Bearcats Sept. 15. With his seventh shutout this season, Settle now stands tied for sixth place all-time in Badger single-season shutouts. Although four games remain on Wisconsin's schedule, UW has already matched last year's win total. The Badgers return to Big Ten competition against the Penn State Nittany Lions Sunday at the McClimon Soccer Complex. After posting a perfect 6-0 regular season conference record and winning the Big Ten tournament a year ago, the Nittany Lions (2-1-0, 4-7-2) stand poised to make another run for the title. The last four contests between PSU and UW have been decided by one goal. Wisconsin's only loss came in 2005 when the Nittany Lions snatched a 1-0 overtime victory. The Badgers will look for a different outcome Sunday as eight UW seniors take the field for their final Big Ten home game. ""We had two good days of training this week,"" Rohrman said. ""Our guys did a tremendous job of rebounding from Sunday's game. Now we're looking forward to Penn State on Sunday and getting back to Big Ten play."" Sunday's game takes place at the McClimon Soccer Complex at noon. uwbadgers.com contributed to this report.