Preview: Maryland women’s soccer searches for upset win against No. 23 Wisconsin

Maryland women’s soccer (2-3-5) gets set to face No. 23 Wisconsin (8-1-2), looking to snap its two-game losing streak as the Terps wrap up their road trip Thursday. 

The Terps battled against No. 10 Rutgers at New Brunswick Sunday. The Scarlet Knights showed some vulnerability after dropping their first loss of the season against Penn State in the outing prior. 

Leading into Sunday, the Scarlet Knights reigned victorious in 20 straight regular season games, and had won seven more games than the Terps in 2022.

Maryland, who searched for a rebound off a loss at home to Illinois its last time out. The Terps entered their most recent match looking feisty, matching Rutgers’ impressive offense with their own top-notch defense.

The Terps fought admirably, dissecting the Rutgers passing lanes whenever they advanced too far into Maryand territory. They also did good work to hone in on Riley Tiernan, the Big Ten assist leader (six) whenever she picked up any steam downfield. 

Rutgers, who had scored 29 goals going into the match, went into the half still hunting for the tiebreaker. Maryland, however, came out of the half even feistier, seemingly intent on kicking off the road trip with that same upset-magic they used against Michigan September 16 in a 1-0 victory.

With 87:48 gone by, the Terps were on the way for their sixth draw of the season. That was until Sara Brocious finally knocked one through off of an Allison Lowrey feed, and Maryland came up short as the Terps couldn’t respond with the two minutes they were left with.

“We are going to have to be very good with the details and habits defensively,” coach Meghan Ryan Nemzer said.

Mikayla Dayes has served as one of the key components of the Maryland offense, especially during the Big Ten portion of the schedule. She’s scored in two of the Terps’ last three games, and has taken the second most shots on goal of anyone on the team (18), trailing only Alyssa Poarch (31).

While Maryland lost two-straight games for the first time this season, Wisconsin has seen its season come alive in September. After starting their season 2-1-2, the Badgers shut out Butler to kick off a six-game winning streak that they’ve yet to fumble.

Wisconsin’s most recent victim was Indiana in its Big Ten opener Sunday. The Badgers won 2-0 to take their third straight against conference opponents.

Wisconsin’s eighth win of the season was thanks in large part to its early scoring attack. Emma Jaskaniec put the Badgers ahead 34 minutes in, and five minutes later set up Riley Philbin for her first goal of her career to double Wisconsin’s score. 

Jaskaniec leads the Badgers in goals (nine), points (21), and shots (27).

The Badgers never looked back, shutting out their sixth opponent in eleven games. This can be credited to Erin McKinney in goal, who racked up four saves against the Hoosiers and has helped Wisconsin hold a save percentage of .815, good enough for fifth in the conference.

Wisconsin and Maryland rank in opposite halves of almost every offensive category in the Big Ten, including goals, points and shots.

Head to head, Maryland holds a 0-4-2 record against Wisconsin.

Kickoff is set for 8 p.m. Thursday and will take place at the McClimon Soccer Complex in Madison.