The Wisconsin women's soccer season came to an abrupt end Saturday night. All the Badgers had to do to extend their season with a berth to the Big Ten tournament was notch a home victory against 4-5 Northwestern, but it was not to be.
Departing after Wisconsin's 2008 campaign is senior forward Taylor Walsh.
The presence of the frontline fixture will be sorely missed for a variety of reasons. But during the past season, Wisconsin witnessed a breakout season by freshman forward Laurie Nosbusch, giving it reason to be excited about the future of this team.
Without Walsh, Wisconsin loses an athlete who has played 79 games, scored 16 goals, notched 12 assists and totaled 44 points. In addition to those statistics, Walsh's true value as a symbol of offensive firepower and consistency is shown by her three consecutive years as the team leader in goals.
We're obviously going to feel that loss offensively,"" Nosbusch said. ""[In terms of] leadership we're going to have to have people step in and fill that role.""
One of those leaders will have to be Nosbusch herself, who showed her impressive offensive capabilities early in her collegiate career. This season Nosbusch scored seven goals, one behind Walsh's eight, and added seven assists to claim the team lead in points with 21. Walsh finished second with 17.
The Badgers will be hit hard by Walsh's absence next season, but players such as Nosbusch realize they were lucky to have a season with Wisconsin's prolific goal scorer.
""It was an honor to play with [Walsh],"" Nosbusch said. ""She's so experienced in the whole college game. She taught me a lot about how to play.""
Playing the same position and taking on a similar physical role as Walsh, Nosbusch had the benefit of being the recipient of some personal advice from the graduate-to-be.
""[She gave me] side comments like 'try this,' or 'do that.' Or on the field she'd give me encouraging statements,"" Nosbusch said.
Nosbusch continued to reiterate that Walsh was constantly dependable for a dose of optimism.
As a whole, Nosbusch enjoyed her first season playing college soccer at Wisconsin.
""It was a lot of fun,"" Nosbusch said. ""I learned a lot from the other players and the coaching staff, and I think I got a little better. We were a young team, so it was a little bit of an up and down season, but overall we got a lot better.""
Obviously Nosbusch was with the team in 2007, but Wisconsin did improve on its record from the previous season. In 2007 the Badgers went 6-11-1 overall and 2-8 in conference play. Wisconsin bettered both those records in 2008, going 9-9-1 overall, 3-7 in the Big Ten.
Even with the progress Wisconsin made, plenty of room remains for improvement looking ahead to next season.
""We're going to look to improve our record. [We want to] become a force in the Big Ten. We want teams to look at us and be a little bit scared of us and [think] we're not going to be an easy game,"" Nosbusch said.
Making noise in the Big Ten is not something Wisconsin has done since 2005, when the Badgers won the conference title. In each of the three seasons since 2005, Wisconsin has finished with a losing record.
But with Nosbusch and 13 other freshmen from the 2008 season poised to improve, The Badgers have grounds to believe their future is bright.
