Exhibition games are meant for teams to experiment.

On a cold spring day, the women's soccer team hosted exhibition games with three other Wisconsin teams, and its intrastate adversaries experimented a lot better.

They outscored Marquette, 9-3, on the day, with most of the damage inflicted by the superb finishing of Wisconsin.

Marquette played with just one striker to try to pack the midfield against the Badgers, but surrendered five goals before grabbing a consolation goal in the final minute.

"The team that makes more mistakes is going to find itself on the wrong end of the result," head coach Markus Roeders said. "As much as we say we're trying to learn in the spring and ultimately the result does not mean that much, it does mean something."

Wisconsin's Amy Vermeulen opened the scoring with a clever turn and chip over freshman goalkeeper Christy Smith. Another Badger shot looped over Smith's head and into the net after 30 minutes, this time via deflection from a long range shot by Katy Lindenmuth.

Wisconsin killed the game off two minutes later when Allison Preiss tucked home Lindenmuth's cross from the right.

The Badgers scored again early in the second half and added a fifth when Vermeulen curled a 20-yard shot into the top corner.

Marquette, which threatened more as the game wore on, scored a scrappy goal at the end with freshman forward Emily Fitzpatrick getting the final touch.

Marquette fell behind early against Wisconsin-Green Bay before goals from sophomore midfielder Lauren Weber and freshman midfielder Julia Egasti put the Golden Eagles in control. UWGB punished them for not putting the game away when Natalie Brown equalized from a tight angle with four minutes left.

The presence of Weber, who converted a penalty kick to tie the game at 1-1 and influenced the attack throughout the first half, provided solace amid a frustrating day for the team.

She started against both Wisconsin and UWGB after playing in only five games in the fall because of a sprained ankle suffered against Wisconsin-Milwaukee Sept. 8.

"It was frustrating, and right when I came back the season was over, and it was back to running," Weber said.

Weber did fitness work with the team in November and has resumed competitive play with this month's exhibition matches.

Marquette fell to UWM, 2-0, in its first match of the day.

"We have some things that are working, some things that aren't," Weber said.

"But spring is just kind of time to experiment, so I think we'll be fine."

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on April 26 2005.