Wilkins speaks at weekly news conference
September 27, 2011 | Women's Soccer
Sept. 27, 2011
• Watch Wilkins Press Conference 
MADISON, Wis. -- Women's soccer head coach Paula Wilkins spoke at Monday's news conference. She talked about the team's expectations for the season now that the Big Ten has started, the play of Laurie Nosbusch, gaining respect nationally and more.
Archived video of the media session is available through the link above, and a complete transcript of Wilkins' remarks can be found below.
Paula Wilkins: The team is really excited to be at the start of the Big Ten. We're excited to get home after a difficult trip on the road to Michigan. Playing on the road is always challenging. We're looking forward to the Border Battle game against Minnesota on Thursday. That'll be our prime focus for right now, with a Minnesota team that's always very dangerous and returning from a Sweet Sixteen performance.
For Ohio State, we're trying to get a big crowd out there for the PAC the MAC with the men's program and trying to get some points in the Big Ten as we slowly move through the 11-game schedule. I'm very excited and happy with the team's performance on the weekend.
One thing that's changed in our program that, as a coach you like to see, on Sunday we got a tie, only got one point. But my players' reaction of acting like it was a loss was something that, when I first got here to Wisconsin, didn't happen, and I'm happy that they've responded and are really focused on doing well in the Big Ten.
QUESTION #1: Expectations have changed, and the players do realize that. Right?
WILKINS: Yeah. It's really exciting to see. Four years ago, if that would've happened, if we would've won one game and tied on the weekend, I think the team would've thought that was the season. And right now, they're looking at the points.
One positive thing is that everybody in the Big Ten has dropped points, so we're still in control of our own destiny. As I told the players, you've got to control everything you can do. The next game is Thursday against Minnesota, and it's always a great rivalry game. Anybody who's from Wisconsin knows that the game against Minnesota, no matter where the teams are in their season, is a really important game and an emotional game.
QUESTION #2: What are you doing well, and what do you still want to work on?
WILKINS: Well, we've done a lot better defensively. Against Penn State, we faced Maya Hayes, who was the leading scorer in the country, and we shut her down; she didn't get a shot on goal.
The next game, we played Michigan State, and after we stopped Maya Hayes, Laura Heyboer became the leading scorer in the country. We did give a goal up to her but limited her opportunities as much as we could, so really happy with being able to stop some of the best scorers in the country.
I still think that we need to do better in the front half of the field and being a little bit more dynamic. We spend a lot of energy defensively, so we need to be able to generate some more offense to give our defense a little bit of a break.
QUESTION #3: How about Laurie Nosbusch, where does she fit in? You know, you talk about sound, solid forwards, and, nationally speaking, where does Laurie fit into that?
WILKINS: We've asked Laurie to do some different roles this year. She's scored some important goals, obviously against Penn State during the season, but we've asked her to do some different things to draw some attention to her to open up some stuff. It's really affected Cara Walls, our freshman, who now has six goals on the season. Laurie has four, so we've become a little bit more dangerous because of the fact now we have two players that are scoring. They can't focus on one player.
Watching Laurie play in the game against Michigan, she just was throwing everything out there that she has physically. To play two games on a weekend, on a Friday and Sunday on the road, is a challenging thing in the Big Ten. I've asked her to do a little bit more work on a different side of the ball, and she's really bought into it and has been a major reason why we've been successful, even though the stats aren't as high for her as they've been in the past this time. But as we get further into the Big Ten, I think she's going to find her legs here and really have an impact. This is where she usually shines.
QUESTION #4: You're not, though I'm not sure, you might be in the national rankings this week. Does that matter? Do you think people notice what's going on with Wisconsin women's soccer?
WILKINS: We're not in the national polls. The one thing we talked about with the players, is that, we said game in and game out, you have to earn respect, and, you win the games to get that, and so that's been their focus. But right now, we're focused on the Big Ten, and that's been something for the entire season and last spring that we've wanted to focus on.
This group of seniors is the first real recruiting class that I've had. They started the Big Ten in 10th their freshman year, so they take pride in this. We've been one of the teams that, we've had the fewest losses in the last two years in the Big Ten but haven't won the Big Ten yet. So even this tie kind of hurt a little bit, because they know giving up points can matter down the line. But they're really focused on the Big Ten and doing well there, so they think that if they do well in the Big Ten, they'll get noticed nationally.
