Women's Soccer Earns NCAA Tournament Bid
November 11, 2002 | Women's Soccer
The Wisconsin women's soccer team earned an at-large berth to the 2002 NCAA Tournament Monday afternoon and will face in-state rival Marquette Friday night at Milwaukee, Wis. The Golden Eagles host the Badgers at Valley Fields at 7:30 p.m. It is the Badgers' 12th all-time trip to the NCAA tourney and the first time facing an in-state foe in the tourney.
'It's truly exciting to be a part of the women 's soccer championships,' coach Dean Duerst said. 'It's a tradition here at Wisconsin that our players should expect to be a part of and know that it takes a lot of hard work to get there. We worked extremely hard.'
The Badgers gathered at the Kohl Center's Nicholas Suites to watch the announcement and erupted in cheers when `Wisconsin' appeared on the TV screen. A day earlier, UW finished second to Ohio State in the Big Ten Tournament, just missing an automatic berth.
'We were a little nervous, there was a little doubt, ' senior co-captain and Milwaukee-native Lauren Schmidt said. 'We knew we were playing well enough in the end of the season. We had all the criteria. We're so glad they recognized us.'
UW's criteria included closing out the regular season with three wins and extending that to five straight with two wins in the Big Ten tourney. The Badgers finished their last 13 games with a 9-3-1 record.
The Badgers last reached the NCAA tournament in 2000 with a 14-6-1 record after closing out the regular season with six-straight wins. This year's squad rebounded from a 5-11-3 effort in 2001 and at 12-8-3 is one of the most improved women's college soccer programs in the nation.
'It's hard to even think about last season anymore, ' Schmidt said. 'I think we've come such a long way. This season started the day after we didn't make it last year. It really has been an entire year that we've been working towards this.'
'This year, the difference was our mental toughness, ' Duerst added. 'We as a group rallied behind each other more. Instead of wondering if we were going to win matches, we were playing to win, playing to attack, playing to get results. Sometimes we didn't get those results, but we improved every weekend. Credit goes to our leadership, it goes to some younger players coming in and being able to not be frightened to compete. It's maturity and personnel; some of the players just learned a lot in a year's time.
Marquette holds a 4-3-1 series advantage over the Badgers and defeated Bucky, 1-0, on Sept. 17. It was UW's third game in five days and Marquette jumped to No. 21 in the rankings on Sept. 23. Marquette moved as high as No. 14 on Oct. 7, but is currently unranked.
UW-Milwaukee takes on third-seeded Pepperdine at 5 p.m. in the other first round game Friday. The winners of Friday's games face off Sunday at 1 p.m. Tickets are $7 for adults and $5 for students/children and can only be purchased at the gate.
'It's neat to be able to have Wisconsin have three teams in, hosting in the Milwaukee area, which I think is a wonderful place for our team to play,' Duerst said. 'We always have players from that area, they have a great atmosphere and it'll be a nice crowd.'
Log on to www.ncaasports.com for the full tournament bracket.
