Lucky No. 7
October 31, 2006 | Women's Soccer
The Wisconsin women's soccer team (7-8-3, 4-5-1 Big Ten) will look to defend its Big Ten tournament title beginning Thursday in University Park, Pa. For the second straight year, the Badgers earned the No. 7 seed and will face No. 2 Illinois at 12:30 p.m. CST Thursday in the first round.
In almost an exact replica of the situation last year, Wisconsin needed a win over Northwestern in the final game of the conference season to earn a berth in the Big Ten tournament. A year ago, the Badgers claimed a 1-0 victory on the road against the Wildcats and then went on to beat No. 2 Purdue (3-0), No. 3 Michigan State (2-1) and No. 8 Michigan (3-1) and claim the 2005 tournament crown.
This year, Wisconsin has taken the first step, beating Northwestern 5-0 last Friday on senior night at the McClimon Soccer Complex. The Badger win gave Wisconsin a tie for seventh place in the league with the Wildcats. Because UW beat Northwestern in head-to-head competition, the Badgers took the No. 7 seed in the tournament.
Wisconsin will be looking to get some redemption against Illinois in the first round of the Big Ten tournament. Earlier in the year, the Fighting Illini defeated Wisconsin 4-1 in the Big Ten opener in Madison.
Illinois enters the game Thursday with a 12-6-0 mark overall and 8-2-0 in conference play. The Illini finished second in the league behind Penn State, and in fact gave the Lady Lions their only loss in the conference with 3-2 victory at home.
Jessica Bayne leads Illinois in scoring this season with seven goals. Teammates Ella Masar and Chichi Newke each have six scores and Masar also leads the team in assists with seven. Goalkeeper Lindsey has played in 17 games and has a 0.90 goals-against average. Carstens also has 48 saves in the net and eight shutouts.
Redshirt sophomore Taylor Walsh continues to lead Wisconsin in scoring. The Madison native has six goals and five assists for a team-high 17 points. Junior Ann Eshun leads the squad in assists with a career-best seven helpers. Senior Kara Kabellis tops the shots category for UW, taking 48 on the year, 20 of which were on goal. Both Lynn Murray and Stefani Szczechowski have seen action in the net this year for the Cardinal and White. Murray has started 11 games and as a 1.35 goals-against average and 42 saves. Szczechowski, who has played in nine games, has a .133 GAA and 24 saves.
If the Badgers beat Illinois Thursday, the squad will face the No. 3 Purdue-No. 6 Ohio State winner at 3:30 p.m. CST at Jeffery Field. The championship game is scheduled for 12:30 CST Sunday and will be broadcast via tape-delay on CSTV Monday afternoon.
