Competition. For the Wisconsin women's soccer team, practice this week is all about competition. Following a disappointing offensive effort last Sunday that resulted in a scoreless draw against #17 Illinois, the Badgers have spent the week focusing on mental preparation ahead of a massive weekend featuring games at Ohio State and at Penn State.
""We've just been doing a lot of competition things,"" said junior forward Laurie Nosbusch. ""Not so much with drills that are offensive, but just getting excited about running through balls, taking people on one-v-one, just going all-out for an entire practice. So I just think it's kind of helped us with our mentality, which will hopefully carry over into our attack.""
""We've done a lot of competition stuff where the first team that scores wins the game,"" added head coach Paula Wilkins. ""So it encourages that you can't wait through a game, you've got to get there fast. It works with the presence of being the first one to control the game.""
The Badgers will indeed have to control the game on Friday against Ohio State in order to shut down a dangerous Buckeye attack. In particular, UW will need to contain Ohio State forwards Tiffany Cameron and Paige Maxwell, who have accounted for 10 of the team's 24 goals.
The Badgers are on a ten-match unbeaten streak and possess a nine-match shutout streak, which ties for the longest in the program's history. The fact that the Badgers' record-breaking 10th consecutive shutout will be fought for against the first place team in the conference adds more significance to the match.
""It means even more. To beat Ohio State and to break the record then would be amazing,""senior defender and team co-captain Taryn Francel said. ""I know that we can do it, and I know that we have it in us.""
After matching up with the Buckeyes on Friday, the Badgers will travel to University Park to play Penn State on Sunday. Coach Wilkins has a past with the Nittany Lions, having been an integral part of the coaching staff during the early years of PSU's dynastic 12-season conference champion streak.
""I try to keep it as professional as possible,"" she said. ""For the players it's a different experience each time. For them I try to focus on the game and not have them worry about me being there in the past.""
A challenging weekend lies ahead for the Badgers, but they are not short on confidence, and freshman midfielder Kodee Williams summed it up best: ""We just have to play the best soccer that we've played all season. There's really nothing to it, we just need to put our 100 percent effort out there. And our percent effort is definitely enough if we can bring it.""
