Badgers Advance to Championship
November 08, 2002 | Women's Soccer
The Wisconsin women's soccer team advanced to the Big Ten tournament championship game for the first time since 1996 by defeating Illinois, 1-0, Friday night. The Badgers picked up their fifth-straight win, improving to 12-7-3, and have won nine out of their last 12 games.
'Especially today, we knew we needed to utilize some extra personnel,' said coach Dean Duerst after his team played on back-to-back nights for the first time this year. 'And I thought we did that effectively. '
The Badgers were also facing an emotionally-charged Illinois team that needed to win its final regular season game to get into the tournament. Illinois followed that effort by pulling off the upset of the tourney knocking off No. 1-seed Penn State Thursday.
'We told our players that Illinois is going to want to get after us,' Duerst said. 'We beat them in the regular season and they 're coming in with some momentum and we had to meet that emotionally. That was one of the keys to the game.'
The Badgers' semifinal game Friday night reflected their first round matchup against Michigan State Thursday. Both 1-0 games, UW played its opponent to a 0-0 tie at half, had some good opportunities in the opening stanza, made some halftime adjustments, scored early on in the second half and held on to win.
Sophomore Amy Vermeulen, who scored Thursday night, had five shots on goal, including two great opportunities in the first half that Illinois keeper Leisha Alcia knocked away.
'We really played well the first 20 minutes and then we started to lose the second ball, we started to lose things in transition and got away from how we play,' Duerst said. 'It allowed momentum to change a little bit and we addressed it at halftime and I think we really adjusted very well in the second half and we started to find that rhythm again.'
The Badger forwards, who struck against Michigan State, found their rhythm in the 58th minute in a melee in front of the net. Junior Jenny Kundert fired the ball that rebounded off the keeper right to senior Jess Wolff who headed it home. Wolff has a goal and an assist and Kundert has tallied two assists in the 2002 Big Ten Tournament.
'Once we got our goal, we gained even more confidence, ' Duerst said. 'Our players just became more assured in the way they wanted to move the ball'
No. 5-seed Wisconsin will face seventh-seeded Ohio State in the title game Sunday at noon. Ohio State advanced to the title game by defeating both Michigan and Purdue on shootouts.
