Coming off of a 10-3 season that featured two wins against ranked opponents, a second-place finish in the Big Ten West and a top-25 post-season ranking, 2016 looked to be a promising year for a Northwestern football program looking to stake its place as a consistent conference contender.
After an exciting weekend of college football around the nation, this upcoming weekend looks to be much less interesting.
Last season, the Wisconsin offensive line struggled to perform at a high level, a departure from the Badgers’ usual dominance in the trenches.
Thanks to a standout performance by Dare Ogunbowale, the Badgers took down Nebraska 23-17 in overtime at Camp Randall last Saturday.
The Wisconsin Badgers (11-2 Big Ten, 19-3 overall) came away from Columbus, Ohio, with another win over a ranked opponent, No. 22 Ohio State (5-8, 15-10), despite being without star freshman Molly Haggerty, who was out with a leg injury. Wisconsin got behind early in the first set, losing 12-8, but went on a late five-point run to earn a 19-16 lead.
One of the biggest perks for the No. 17/No. 13 Wisconsin Badgers this season is the top talent they face every time they get in the pool to compete.
The No. 8 Wisconsin Badgers (3-2 Big Ten, 6-2 overall) are through the most treacherous section of their regular season, and the team fared far better than many would have expected coming into the fall. But with November here and a trip to Northwestern next on the schedule, the Badgers aren’t quite out of the autumn woods.
After spending nearly a month playing exclusively on the road, top-ranked Wisconsin (7-0-1 WCHA, 9-0-1 overall) is set to return to LaBahn Arena for a weekend series against Bemidji State (2-5-1, 4-5-1). “It will be nice to be back at home,” head coach Mark Johnson said at a press conference Monday.
After shaking up his top line because of defensive lapses, head coach Tony Granato put Grant Besse, Luke Kunin and Cameron Hughes back together for last weekend’s road trip.
Newly-minted with a No. 20 ranking to conclude the regular season, the Badgers have earned the No. 3-overall seed in the upcoming Big Ten Tournament. The high seeding is a culmination of Wisconsin’s uptick in performance, in sharp contrast to last year’s No. 7 seed.
Coming off back-to-back wins at the field house this past weekend, No. 3 Wisconsin (10-2 Big Ten, 18-3 overall) will put its current three-match win streak on the line against a pair of Big Ten rivals this week. The Badgers will begin play on the road as they travel to Columbus for a Wednesday night matchup with No. 22 Ohio State (5-7, 15-9). Then, after a quick turnaround, the team will return home to host Purdue (4-8, 14-9) this Saturday. After effectively containing star blocker Haleigh Washington in the victory over Penn State, Wisconsin will be charged with a very similar task in defending Taylor Sandbothe of Ohio State.
The Badgers (4-2-0) scored five goals in each of their games over the weekend to capture two victories and solidify their standing as a new-and-improved team.
Behind two key goals from junior forward Baylee Wellhausen, top-ranked Wisconsin (7-0-1 WCHA, 9-0-1 overall) beat Minnesota State (0-7-1, 2-7-1) Saturday by a score of 3-1 to sweep the weekend series. “It felt really good to get the win today,” Wellhausen told UWBadgers.com.
Two shots. That was the difference maker for Wisconsin (5-4-3 Big Ten, 8-8-4 overall) and Michigan (6-2-3, 10-4-4) in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament on Sunday afternoon in Ann Arbor, when the Wolverines dispatched the Badgers 4-2 in a shootout win that ended the Badgers’ tournament hopes. In the second meeting between the two teams this season, thing went similarly as the first match, a thriller October 13 that ended in a 1-1 tie.
For almost a generation, from 1999 to 2012, the Wisconsin men’s cross country teams completely dominated the Big Ten championships, winning 14 straight team titles.
There is quite a bit to unpack from Wisconsin’s thrilling overtime victory against No. 7 Nebraska this past Saturday. For starters, a lot of credit has to be given to Mike Riley and the Cornhuskers for how well they battled back in that game.
After a statement win against Penn State Friday night, No. 4 Wisconsin (10-2 Big Ten, 18-3 overall) picked up another win Sunday afternoon, defeating Big Ten cellar-dwellar Rutgers (0-12 Big Ten, 4-11) in straight sets by a score of 25-14, 25-18, 25-23 at the UW Field House. Beyond the favorable outcome on the scoreboard, this contest turned out to be a landmark occasion for a couple of Badgers, namely senior middle Haleigh Nelson and senior setter Lauren Carlini.
The Wisconsin (10-3-3 overall, 4-2-2 Big Ten) men’s soccer team defeated Ohio State (5-12-1 overall, 3-4-1 Big Ten) 2-1 Sunday, capping off its regular season with a successful Senior Day. Casey Beyers, Brian Hail, and Matej Radonic were all honored before the game for their contributions to the program, and the Badgers kept up the good spirits with their performance. Wisconsin dominated proceedings in the first half, amassing 15 shots and largely controlling the possession and flow of the game.
Wisconsin’s 86-56 exhibition win over UW-Platteville Sunday afternoon might have been an early Thanksgiving reunion for the Gard and Showalter families, but the Badgers’ win over the Pioneers featured more than your standard batch of familial reunions. Turnovers, missed free throws and at times sloppy defense plagued the Badgers for long stretches of the afternoon, making Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard’s first matchup against his brother, Platteville head coach Jeff Gard, far less enjoyable than he would have wanted. Sure the Badgers have now won 43 consecutive exhibition games and led Sunday’s game from start to finish, but for a team with championship aspirations, the Badgers showed they still have a long way to go. “I saw some things that were good and positive and obviously a lot of things that will make the teaching tape that we’ll have to get better at,” Gard said. UW struggled for long stretches of the first half thanks to a flurry of bad passing, poor offensive possessions and abysmal free throw shooting.
Overlooked in the Wisconsin Badgers’ (3-2 Big Ten, 6-2 overall) ugly overtime win over the No. 7 Nebraska Cornhuskers (4-1, 7-1) was a historic performance by redshirt senior running back Dare Ogunbowale. The backup only carried the ball 11 times, but his 10.9-yard average for 120 total yards on those runs was the highest per-carry average for a Wisconsin running back in a game (min.
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