Bears dig in, earn 0-0 draw with Wisconsin

Baylor traveled to Wisconsin on Sunday night in search of their first win against a Big Ten opponent in three tries this season. After a 1-0 loss to Minnesota and a 2-1 loss to Nebraska, teams picked to finish 10th and 12th in their conference respectively, Wisconsin was supposed to prove the toughest challenge.

The Badgers, who were picked to finish 5th in the Big Ten, found themselves evenly matched, and in a tough fight.

The Bears have been gelling lately despite star forward Taylor Moon remaining out of the lineup. They carried the momentum from their 2-1 overtime win against SMU, through their 2-0 win against North Texas, all the way to Madison where they put a scare in the home team.

Two balls into the Badger six-yard box were just barely out of reach for Mack Anthony and Sarah Hornyak or else they surely would have been put into the back of the net. Credit for the great delivery on those passes goes to Elizabeth Kooiman and Kayley Ables.

At the other end, Jennifer Wandt was not troubled much in the first period thanks to hard work from defenders Chloe Japic, Sarah Norman, Ava Colberg and Ables.

Norman did have a dicey moment during the half, but her hustle helped her correct her own mistake with seconds.

The second half saw the Badgers look more dangerous, but not after Baylor had probably its best chance of the game.

The Bears won a corner on the left side and Ally Henderson-Ashkinos sent in a beautiful ball. Mack Anthony headed it from the far post back across the face of the goal, but no other Bear was there to punch it home.

Soon after, Colberg had the best defensive moment of the night. Finding herself only six yards from goal and the last thing between a Badger with the ball and the goal, she slid in for a score-saving tackle to keep the game knotted at 0-0.

Gabby Mueller also made some nice runs through the midfield in the second half but could not find room to get a good shot off.

After a last-second corner came to nothing for the Bears, the game went to sudden death.

Again both teams had their chances, but play was getting sloppier as the players were tiring out.

Maddie Algya put in a nice shot on goal to force a save, but the keeper did not seem especially troubled by the effort.

Baylor was outshot by Wisconsin 8-11 on the night, but the Bears put twice as many on goal with four testing the Badger keeper.

Wandt was nearly caught coming off her line to clear a ball from the edge of the 18-yard box, but the Wisconsin attacker was whistled for a foul as she knocked Wandt down.

After that, there was not much left to tell in the story of this match. Wisconsin had a last-minute corner that came to nothing, and both sides had to settle for a hard-fought 0-0 draw.

WotM: Ava Colberg – She saved a sure goal from Wisconsin and put in another hard-working shift for 110 minutes.

Up Next: Oregon (SUN. 9/12 7 PM)