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 Two goals by Cara Walls (Wauwatosa East). Two big saves by Michele Dalton. And a two-win weekend for the University of Wisconsin women's soccer team.
Walls scored in each half, giving the freshman a team-high nine goals on the season, and Dalton stopped a potential tying penalty kick as the Badgers blanked Indiana 2-0 on Sunday afternoon at the McClimon Complex to clinch a berth in the Big Ten Conference tournament.
The Badgers (10-5-3 overall, 5-2-3 Big Ten) head into next Saturday's regular-season finale against Iowa tied with Michigan State for third place in the conference standings and can finish no lower than fourth. The conference tournament is Nov. 2 to 6 in Evanston, Ill.
"Getting two wins in a weekend was going to be really important for us physically as a group – we haven't done that since Dayton and Cincinnati (on Sept. 2 and 4)," UW coach Paula Wilkins said in a news release. "We got more people wanting to play and we got some more people playing time, getting ready for the Big Ten tournament, because it's going to be a couple-day tournament."
Walls stepped in front of an attempted pass by Hoosiers goalkeeper Lindsay Campbell after a back pass, dribbled in and finished into the vacant net to give the Badgers the lead in the 21st minute.
Junior forward Orianica Velasquez, who played for Colombia at the Women's World Cup in Germany over the summer, nearly tied it for Indiana (6-11-1, 2-8-0) in the 33rd with a free kick from 25 yards out, but Dalton made a diving stop.
Then in the 58th, Velasquez had an even better chance to equalize, as she stepped to the spot after UW was called for a foul in the box. Velasquez shot to the lower left corner, but Dalton dove to her right to make the save and keep the Badgers in front.
"One thing you know about Michele is that she believes she is going to make a difference in the game," Wilkins said of Dalton, who made four saves in her sixth shutout of the year and the 24th of her career – with one more clean sheet, she would pass Kelly Conway (1999 to 2002) for fourth place in UW history.
"She made it in the first half with the save towards the near post and she did it on the PK to keep the game at 1-0. Give huge credit to a senior who feels desperate at the end of the season and wants to make an impression."
Junior Lindsey Hamann just missed her first collegiate goal, as her header off a cross from senior forward Laurie Nosbusch clanged off the crossbar in the 64th, but the Badgers got some help from the woodwork six minutes later.
Sophomore Catie Sessions played a ball to Nosbusch, who flicked it on to her strike partner Walls. Her shot deflected off Campbell and then the left post before trickling into the net for her second two-goal game. It was the 20th career assist for Nosbusch, who moved into a tie with Jackie Billet (1992 to '95), Erica Handelman (1990 to '93) and Cheri Skibski (1991 to '94) for sixth place in the program record book.
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