After falling 1-0 to top five team Maryland last Friday, Elmar Bolowich led the Bluejays to Madison and left with a 2-1 overtime win over the Wisconsin Badgers. They stay on the road for a tilt against #10 Indiana Sunday. Meanwhile, the Creighton women’s soccer team is 4-0-1 in their last five matches, and Bruce Erickson’s team hosts Kansas Sunday afternoon.
We caught up with Bolowich and Erickson ahead of their teams’ weekend matches.
White & Blue Review: Seemed like a pretty tough match against Wisconsin on Wednesday; what did you guys take away from that game?
Elmar Bolowich: Wisconsin was a tough team. They played us very hard and they forced us to play hard and smart. They were a very tall team and really took away from our ability to play balls in the air, especially up front. They made it very hard for us to capitalize on crosses to our strikers. We decided we needed to take the game to the ground and we really outplayed them in that aspect. We really were able to control the game when we established our attack and controlled possession. I was a bit surprised by the facilities and support. We were a top 5 team coming in and they had around 475 fans in attendance. The field was subpar and it really makes you appreciate your home field.
WBR: You will continue your road trip with a match up against a struggling Indiana team, how do you view this game and what should we watch for?
EB: Well, they are coming off back-to-back losses so they will be hungry and will play us hard. This will be a tough game for us, but it will be one we can learn from. I am not too familiar with them, as they had a lot of turnaround from last season. They have moved their former center back to center forward and he has really played well. This should be a good game for us.
WBR: Do you have an injury update for us?
EB: We were very excited to get Jose Rivas back this past week from an ankle injury and he played very well against Wisconsin. He was using his feet well and made some very nice plays for us. However, in practice yesterday, he rolled his other ankle and will be out again. On the bright side, Choco [Jose Gomez] will be able to play on Sunday and he will play.
WBR: There has been a lot of talk about your non-conference schedule and the amount of time on the road. How is the schedule looking for next season with possible return games?
EB: The schedule for next year is looking very good. We will have Maryland here as an exhibition and as far as regular season games we will have a pretty nice home schedule. We are looking at having home games including Akron, Old Dominion, William & Mary, and Rutgers. We will also have road games against St. Mary’s, Princeton, and Santa Clara. I think it should be another challenging schedule for us.
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WBR: Kansas will be your final non-conference opponent of the season. How has that portion of your schedule gone in your opinion?
Bruce Erickson: I think we accomplished what we wanted to. We wanted to play teams that were as good or better than what we will see in conference play but also some that would play a similar style to our conference opponents that will really want to grind it out. We had our ups and downs, especially on the California trip. We played Davis and we just sat back and couldn’t figure out what was going on. We really played sloppy. But, we were able to go out and put together a good game against Sacramento State, unfortunately we lost in overtime.
WBR: What can we expect out of the game against Kansas on Sunday?
BE: They will be returning a lot of players that we faced in the exhibition game last year. Then, I thought they had one of the better midfields we played against, and they should be just as good this time around. They are a team that has already played Missouri State and they play a similar style we will see in on Saturday. This should be a great match up for us, and they will be ready to play.
WBR: Who has been your stand out player so far this season?
BE: If you had asked me that question two weeks ago, I would probably have a different answer. I guess I would have to say Brittney Neumann. She has had six really nice goals in the past two weeks and she is really playing well. Also, Macy Mauer has really stepped up for us. With some of the injuries over the season we have asked her to move around quite a bit and she has done a great job.