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 It was a rough and tumble Saturday afternoon at the McClimon Complex.
When the dust settled, the University of Wisconsin women's soccer team had its second consecutive win over perennial Big Ten Conference power Penn State.
Laurie Nosbusch (Mequon Homestead) scored in the 18th minute and fellow senior Michele Dalton made seven saves for the shutout as the Badgers fought past the 21st-ranked Nittany Lions 1-0 in a conference opener.
The Badgers (6-3-0) were outshot 12-6 and managed just two shots on goal, but still were able to give coach Paula Wilkins another victory against her former team. UW is 2-2-1 against Penn State under Wilkins; when she arrived in Madison in 2007, the Badgers were 1-13-4 in the all-time series.
UW made things difficult for the Nittany Lions (6-3-0), committing 27 of the match's 38 fouls and collecting four of the six yellow cards issued. Penn State's Maya Hayes, who came into the weekend as the country's leading scorer with 12 goals, didn't have a shot in the game.
"I thought we just brought the mentality that we were going to win balls and not let them settle it, because they are a great technical team and a great tactical team with their spacing," Wilkins said in a news release. "We wanted to make sure they didn’t have any clear possessions."
The lone goal came during a sequence that featured a flip throw-in by the Badgers' Lindsey Johnson (Mequon Homestead). She launched the ball into the box, fellow junior defender Joana Bielefeld (Brookfield Central) headed it down and Nosbusch put it in for her fourth goal of the season. It was the first career point for Bielefeld.
"I was just standing in the middle of the goal wide open and it bounced right to me so I just had to tap it in," said Nosbusch, who claimed sole possession of fifth place in UW history with her 26th career goal. "Everyone else did the work, and I was just in the right place at the right time."
The rest of the chances on goal belonged to the Nittany Lions, who were held at bay by Dalton – or the woodwork.
After junior midfielder Monica Lam-Feist drew a yellow card for a foul in the 43rd, Christine Nairn thumped a shot off the post. Dalton made four saves in the second half, including parrying a shot by Emma Thomson from the top of the box over the crossbar in the 68th.
"She made a couple great saves," Wilkins said of Dalton, who has three clean sheets this season and 21 in her career. "The reaction save to tip it over the bar is the game-changer right there, and I think that she's been doing that throughout the season and did it today."
The Badgers head to Michigan next weekend, taking on Michigan State on Friday in East Lansing and Michigan next Sunday in Ann Arbor. The Spartans (7-1-0) and Wolverines (5-2-1), coached by former UW coach Greg Ryan, both start Big Ten play on Sunday.
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