"Her quickness and agility is something that just
stood out," Wilkins said of Lavelle. "If you look at her,
she has a very small build; she's not this big bruiser
in the mid-field. But people can't catch her."
"As a coaching staff, we have to figure out how we can
get her free more often. But it's only going to make her
better and better. If they take a senior and man-mark a
freshman, that's impressive."
The 21-year-old Toohey, a starter in each of the last
four seasons, made an impression on Lavelle, who
started all eight matches this summer with the U.S.'s
U20 national team in La Manga, Spain.
"She was really fast," Lavelle said. "When I'm getting
man-marked (in high school) I can usually outrun them
and use my speed to get by them. But she was just as
fast as me so that was difficult.
"I handled it better than I thought I would. I wish I
would have been able to touch the ball more but overall
I think it was a good learning experience for me."
To this end, Lavelle has gotten an early preview on
how physical some Big Ten teams can be.
"Definitely Michigan was," she said. "It was a whole
new experience for me. Michigan State, not so much,
but it was still more so than the rest of the (non-conference) season."
The Badgers completed their road swing Sunday by
blanking the Spartans, 2-0, in East Lansing. Kinley McNicoll, a sophomore from Oakville, Ontario, accounted
for both goals.
Wisconsin is now 6-0-2 away from home.
"That's a huge confidence booster," said Lavelle.
"Knowing we can play good teams and win on the road
gives us all the more confidence when we're playing
good teams at home."
That will certainly be the case this weekend at the
McClimon Soccer Complex, where the Badgers will face
Penn State on Friday night (7 p.m.) and Ohio State on
Sunday (11:30 a.m.).
"I'm starting to settle in," said Lavelle, the UW's thirdleading scorer with 14 points. "I think I've kind of matured more as the season has gone along and I'm starting to play a bigger role now."
Wilkins, who's entering her seventh season at Wisconsin, has been tracking Lavelle since coaching her on
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