By: Ryan Wollersheim

After falling to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish last regular season on double overtime penalty kicks, it was the Wisconsin Badgers’ turn Sunday to score in the waning minutes and even the score against the Irish. 

Midfielder Natalie Viggiano scored the Badgers’ lone goal of the day to equalize the final score at 1-1. 

In the 89th minute, midfielder Aryssa Mahrt stole the ball on the Notre Dame half of the center circle to start the Badgers’ best offensive passing sequence of the day. Mahrt then hit a sprinting Claire Odmark in stride upfield. Odmark – who struggled to get the ball in the open field for much of the afternoon – ran stride for stride with an Irish defender, but managed to find a trailing Viggiano for a pass over the middle of the field. The Badgers’ second-leading scorer from last season then finished the breakaway by lacing the ball past Notre Dame goalie Ashley Naylor. 

The play was one of the few offensive bright spots on a day when Wisconsin struggled to string multiple passes together.

“We had a hard time playing out of the back to get into the attacking third,” said senior midfielder Emma Jaskaniec. “We had probably two or three good chances, which was exciting … The more we are getting into the final third, the better we’re doing. But, I think we need to get into the final third more to actually show progress with it.”

The Badgers spent much of the opening half on the heels of their boots as the Irish continually pushed the action into Wisconsin’s half of the pitch. This half ended scoreless, however, as both teams were held to just one shot on goal. The Badgers limited the Irish’s scoring opportunities thanks to the defensive play of the team’s center and wing backs.

“We didn’t really expect what formation they were going to come out with and they were overloading in the center,” said senior center back Macy Monticello. “We changed our formation probably like four times during the game. But I think during those formation changes, our team actually handled it pretty well.”

Wisconsin appeared to open the second half in a 4-4-2 formation in an effort to load up on defensive backs to combat Notre Dame’s aggressive press. The Badgers also looked cleaner offensively to begin this half, but it was Notre Dame that broke open the scoring drought when, in the 59th minute, midfielder Korbin Albert intercepted an errant long pass in the Badgers’ defensive third. This placed Albert on an island against Wisconsin center back Aidan McConnell. Albert then maneuvered around the 2021 All-Big Ten Freshman defender before slotting it just beyond diving goalkeeper Erin McKinney who couldn’t stop the ball from finding the bottom left corner of the net. 

Over the next 30 minutes, the Badgers continued to bend but not break against the Irish’s precise passing attack, but faltered offensively until Viggiano’s equalizer just before the end of the match. 

Despite a need for improvement on the offensive end of the pitch, coming away with a draw against a team that finished the 2021 season ranked 16th in the nation has left Jaskaniec feeling optimistic going forward. 

“They’re definitely one of the better teams in the country,” said Jaskaniec. “So being able to tie them, even though it was right at the end, was definitely good for us … we have to get better individually, but I think it’s exciting that we were able to tie them [to show] we can compete.”

Wisconsin’s next exhibition will come when the team travels north to take on in-state foe Green Bay on Friday, April 8th at 5pm.