Take a look ahead to this weekend's matches for the University of Wisconsin and UW-Milwaukee women's teams.
Senior forward Laurie Nosbusch (Mequon Homestead) breaks down the Badgers' season so far and the Big Ten Conference season, which continues this weekend with a road trip to Michigan. UW plays Michigan State on Friday in East Lansing and Michigan on Sunday in Ann Arbor.
And senior defender Mary Wandolowski and junior midfielder Demi Price talk about the 15th-ranked Panthers' home games against Western Illinois on Friday night and Detroit on Sunday afternoon at Engelmann Stadium.
The Big Ten Network has launched the "BTN Soccer Report," weekly web shows dedicated to discussing men's and women's soccer.
Kevin Egan and Aron Hyde, the goalkeeper coach for Major League Soccer's Chicago Fire, are the hosts of the quick-hit episodes.
This week's shows act as season previews – the women's conference schedule starts Saturday with the University of Wisconsin playing host to Penn State at the McClimon Complex, while the Big Ten men's schedule kicks off next Friday.
In this week's men's report, Hyde singles out coach John Trask's Badgers as a team on the rise.
Many fans arriving at the McClimon Complex entrance Friday night experienced something that doesn't normally happen at University of Wisconsin soccer matches: They had to wait in line to get in.
The 20th-ranked Badgers drew 984 fans to their season opener, a 1-0 loss to No. 3 UCLA as part of the Wisconsin Tournament. That's more than double UW's average attendance from last season (476) and is believed to be the best turnout for a regular-season women's game at McClimon since 2004 – 1,038 attended the Badgers' first-round NCAA tournament game against Arizona State last fall.
It also marked the debut, or what I think was the debut, of a student section group for soccer games.
Called Buckingham's Palace, a clever name combining Bucky Badger's full first name and the English connection to the sport, the group stood for all 90 minutes, sang songs, chanted players' names and heckled UCLA players – while some of their antics straddled the line of good taste, as would be expected, only one song was a red card offense in my book.
There were approximately eight people in the group at the start of the match, but their numbers doubled as the match went on. While that's still a small number, they provided vocal student support that hasn't been seen at UW matches in recent years.
One member mentioned that the group has a Facebook page, but I wasn't able to find it – if anyone can provide a link, please do. It would be great if the fledgling group continues to grow and Buckingham's Palace can become a presence at UW men's games, too.
Here they are during "Jump Around" just before the second half Friday night:
Admittedly, there's not a ton of soccer action in this video, but I still found it interesting.
It's from a California-based Web site called The Final Third and highlights a small-sided pickup game last month in Beverly Hills, and includes former Madison Memorial standout Leah Tapscott.
Tapscott, who played at Stanford and has won back-to-back USL W-League titles with the Pali Blues the past two years, was hoping to be chosen in last Friday's Women's Professional Soccer draft, but wasn't selected. Last year, she was one of the final cuts by Bay Area WPS team FC Gold Pride.
Also playing in the "Ultimate Guys vs. Girls Pickup Game" were Chicago Red Stars midfielder Brittany Klein and Chris Harrison, host of the TV show "The Bachelor."
• This might be old news, but it was news to me: Former UW standout Kara Kabellis served as an assistant coach for NCAA Division II Lewis (Ill.) last fall – she also is pursuing her master's degree in counseling and guidance. The Flyers were 5-9-2 overall and 4-8-1 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference.
UW sophomore forward and leading scorer Laurie Nosbusch (Mequon Homestead) chatted with the Big Ten Network last week after the Badgers' impressive season ended with a 1-0 loss to Boston College in the Sweet 16.
