It was a dismal weekend for the Wisconsin women's soccer team as they left the Stanford Tournament with a single goal for, eight against and two losses to boot.
Given a chance to go toe-to-toe against the top teams in the nation, the Badgers came out flat and failed to execute like they did in the week prior to the tournament. After a 2-1 loss to No.12 Santa Clara and a 6-0 thrashing by No.3 Stanford, the two-game winning streak the Badgers had going for them has been replaced with a two-game losing streak.
The first game of the weekend out west had the Badgers (4-4-1) playing Santa Clara (6-2-0). Despite a solid performance by Wisconsin goalkeeper Michelle Dalton, who ended up with seven saves, the typically sound Badger defense was unable to keep the Broncos out of the net.
Santa Clara came out strong, scoring both of their goals in the first half. The first came in the 33rd minute, while the second was a mere three minutes later in the 36th.
Having been outshot 9-3 in the first half it was time for Wisconsin to regroup and create some scoring chances. The Badgers did just that, notching six shots—including one by Whitney Owusu that found the back of the net after a corner kick from Meghan Flannery in the 88th minute.
However it was too little too late for Wisconsin; two minutes later the game was over and the Badgers had fallen 2-1.
The weekend wasn't going to get any easier for the Badgers. After falling to the excellent Santa Clara squad, Wisconsin had to get ready to face undefeated national powerhouse Stanford (9-0-0).
Wisconsin expected a tough game but was probably not prepared for the beat-down that ensued—an embarrassing 6-0 loss in which they were outshot 30-4 by the Cardinal. Even though sophomore goalkeeper Michelle Dalton had a season-high twelve saves, it was not enough to prevent the team's most lopsided loss of the season.
Dalton and the Badgers were able to keep the potent Cardinal offense off the scoreboard for the first 20 minutes, but that was small consolation for what lay ahead of them. Stanford was able to tally three goals in the final 25 minutes of the first half to put them up 3-0 heading into the break.
The second half brought more of the same for both teams as the Cardinal were able to score three more goals in a span of three minutes before the half was ten minutes old.
Unable to get any of their four shots in the back of the net, the Badgers were shutout for the fifth time this season.
Wisconsin will open Big Ten conference play this weekend at the McClimon Complex. The Badgers will take on No.11 Purdue Sept. 25 at 5 p.m. Following the game, the men's soccer team will play No.8 Indiana at 7:30 p.m. as part of the Pac of the Mac doubleheader.
—uwbadgers.com contributed to this report.
