David Stluka/UW Athletics
Standout forward Dani Rhodes: player of the week.
The Big Ten schedule kicked in this week for the University of Wisconsin men’s and women’s soccer teams. The men played Michigan and Northwestern earlier this week and the women host their first conference opponent, Minnesota, on Sept. 16 at the Dan McClimon Memorial Track/Soccer Complex.
Sparked by an Aug. 31 1-0 upset of No. 3. Virginia on the road — UW’s highest-ranked victory in program history — the No. 16 women Badgers are 6-1-0 and riding a five-game winning streak.
Sophomore forward Dani Rhodes booted in UW’s only goal against the Cavaliers, and scored in four of the last five games — already matching her career high in a season. No wonder she was named the TopDrawerSoccer.com Player of the Week.
The Virginia win helped the Badgers secure spots in every category of the Big Ten’s weekly honors, too. Rhodes was co-offensive player of the week, and senior goalkeeper Caitlyn Clem earned the defensive player of the week nod with three saves against Virginia and six stops against the College of William & Mary on Sept. 3. Lauren Rice picked up co-freshman of the week honors by scoring the first two goals of her career in the 3-1 William & Mary win.
The Badgers sole loss of the season is a 5-0 shutout by No. 2 Stanford on Aug. 20.
On the other hand, heading into Sept. 13’s match against Northwestern at McClimon, the men’s soccer team already had more ties than wins or losses. At 1-1-2, the Badgers fell to Michigan, 2-1, on Sept. 8, when the only UW goal came after captain goalkeeper Philipp Schilling found the net from 65 yards out. It was the first career score for the redshirt senior from Schwegenheim, Germany.
“The bottom line is we went down two goals in the first half and fought back to make it 2-1,” men’s head coach John Trask told UWBadgers.com after the Wolverines game. “When you go down like that in the Big Ten, you’re probably not going to be successful.”
The UW women will be at McClimon for the next three games (Sept. 16 vs. Minnesota, Sept. 21 vs. Michigan State and Sept. 24 vs. Michigan), while the men play three of their next four at home (Sept. 16 vs. Loyola University Chicago, Sept. 23 vs. Penn State and Sept. 26 vs. Wright State).
Ticket prices are $5 for adults and $2 for kids under 17, UW students and adults over 55.