Friday State Sports Briefs: Badgers look for rebound win over Purdue

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MADISON - After two straight losses, University of Wisconsin football coach Bret Bielema says his Badgers are ready to turn things around tomorrow when they host Purdue. He said his players showed a lot of energy at practice this week -- and Bielema believes his team will respond well if he gets down to crunch time against the Boilermakers.

Both teams are 2-2 in the Big Ten coming into tomorrow's game at Camp Randall Stadium. The Badgers are still 6-2 overall, following their road losses at Michigan State and Ohio State. Purdue is at 4-4. Two years ago, the Badgers lost back-to-back games to Ohio State and Iowa when they whipped Purdue at home 37-0. Wisconsin should be fairly healthy. Linebacker Ethan Armstrong is expected to play, after having minor thumb surgery a few days ago. Freshman receiver Fred Willis, who's been out for two games with a sprained left ankle, is not sure if he'll be ready for tomorrow.

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Green Bay Packers’ corner Tramon Williams says he’s pain free – and he’s totally comfortable resuming his close bump-and-run coverage on opposing receivers. Williams suffered a deep shoulder bruise on the opening night of the regular season. And when he returned, he gave more room to his opposing receivers to reduce his contact. But after the bye week, Williams says he’s over the hump and he can go full-tilt again. Coach Mike McCarthy says it’s another example of how players with various aches-and-pains got healed as a result of the week off. Meanwhile, safety Morgan Burnett will have to wear a protective club for a few more weeks, as he recovers from a broken hand suffered almost a month ago. Still, Burnett said the bye week helped his recovery – and the size of his club will get smaller as his hand heals.

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UW-Whitewater can win the WIAC football title for themselves tomorrow, with a victory at Eau Claire. The top-ranked Warhawks are 5-0 in conference play – and they earned at least a share of their seventh straight crown last weekend with a homecoming victory over U-W Stevens Point. Stout, Platteville, and Oshkosh are all tied for second place at 3-and-2. Stout hosts Platteville tomorrow. Oshkosh is at Stevens Point. And River Falls plays at La Crosse.

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Teams in the Midwest Conference will play their final regular season games tomorrow. Monmouth of Illinois can win the league title with a home victory over Knox College. Monmouth is 8-0, and second-place Illinois College is 7-1. Illinois College can still win a share of the championship with a home win over Beloit and a Monmouth loss. Ripon hosts Lawrence. Carroll is at Grinnell. And Saint Norbert plays at Lake Forest.

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In the Northern Athletics Conference, Benedictine will try to stay undefeated when it plays at Rockford tomorrow. Second-place Concordia-Mequon is 4-1, and will play at Concordia-Chicago. Lakeland hosts Maranatha Baptist. And Wisconsin Lutheran is at home against Aurora.

In the CCIW, Carthage will try to even its 2-3 league record when it hosts Illinois Wesleyan.

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NASCAR has decided not to schedule a Camping World Truck Series' race at Road America in Elkhart Lake next year. The track and NASCAR looked into the possibility of adding a truck event on the weekend of June 22nd-through-24th, when the Nationwide and Grand-Am series are scheduled to run at Elkhart Lake. But track president George Bruggenthies said NASCAR had too much of a schedule crunch -- and its TV partners had no room to add an event on a Sunday. He said NASCAR wanted to consider another Sunday, but Road America doesn't have any more dates available for next year.

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Pewaukee native Mark Wilson is tied for 44th at the halfway point of the HSBC Champions' tournament in Shanghai, China. Wilson shot a one-over-par 73 in his second round overnight. And he's now at even-par-144 midway through the World Golf Championships' event. Fredrik Jacobson has the lead at 11-under.

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The University of Wisconsin men’s hockey team will try to go above .500 when it plays a two-game series at Saint Cloud State tonight and tomorrow night. The Badgers are 3-3 in the WCHA and 4-4 overall. Saint Cloud is 1-1 in the conference and 3-4-1 overall. Both teams are coming off splits last weekend. The Badgers lost by one to Nebraska-Omaha last Friday night before coming back with a 6-3 win Saturday. Saint Cloud State blanked North Dakota 4-0 before losing the next time, 3-1. Junior forward Ryan Little has the hot hand for Wisconsin. He has scored in each of his last four games, and has two goals and four assists so far this year.

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In women’s hockey, the top-ranked Badgers play at Ohio State tonight and tomorrow night. Wisconsin has a four-game winning streak after a sweep of fourth-ranked Boston University last weekend.

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The Milwaukee Admirals will host Charlotte tonight. Charlotte has the early lead in the American Hockey League’s new Midwest Division with 13 points and a record of 6-3-1-0. Milwaukee is two points back with 11, with a mark of 5-2-0-1. The Admirals are looking to recover from a pair of losses last weekend in which Milwaukee gave up five goals each night. The Admirals also play tomorrow night at Peoria.

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Carroll University of Waukesha is going for back-to-back titles, as the Midwest Conference men’s soccer tournament begins this morning. Carroll won the right to host the event by winning the regular season crown with an 8-1 record. Carroll will open the tournament by playing fourth-seeded Lake Forest. Number-two Lawrence will then face third-seeded Beloit. The winners will square off for the championship tomorrow. In the CCIW, the Carthage men's soccer team hosts North Park (Ill.) tomorrow night for the conference tournament title. In the Northern Athletics Conference, top-seeded Dominican is going for its sixth consecutive men’s soccer tournament crown tomorrow. They’ll host the Milwaukee School of Engineering.

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Lawrence University of Appleton is playing for its second straight title, as the Midwest Conference women’s soccer tournament kicks off this morning in De Pere. Carroll is facing Grinnell in the first semi-final – and then Lawrence faces the host Saint Norbert this afternoon. The winners will go for the crown tomorrow. Lawrence tied for fourth place in the regular season at 5-3-1 – and Saint Norbert, Carroll, and Grinnell all finished at 7-1-1. Saint Norbert won the tie-breaker to become the top seed and the tournament host. In the WIAC, top-seeded UW-Whitewater will host No. 4 UW-Oshkosh in the title game of that league tournament. The NAC women’s soccer tournament will have its championship game tomorrow. Top-seeded Aurora hosts No. 2 Marian.

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The University of Wisconsin women's basketball team won its exhibition opener last night, 70-54 over Division-Three UW-Whitewater at the Kohl Center in Madison. The Badgers got off to a slow start in their first game under new head coach Bobbie Kelsey. Wisconsin led by 10 at the half. Whitewater got to within six with just over 13 minutes left, but the Badgers then pulled away with a 6-0 run. Wisconsin shot 52-percent for the game, while holding the Warhawks to 28-percent. Ashley Thomas scored 17 points for Wisconsin, and made all five of her free throws. Kaitlyn Thill led Whitewater with 15. The Badgers will play their second-and-final exhibition on Sunday at home against Division-Two UW-Parkside from Kenosha.

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In other women's hoops exhibition play, UW-Milwaukee hosts Lewis tonight. UW-Green Bay hosts Cedarville tomorrow. And the Marquette University women will host Carthage tomorrow. In men's exhibition basketball, UW-Green Bay hosts Lawrence tonight. And UW-Madison hosts UW-Stevens Point tomorrow evening.

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Edgewood College of Madison scored an upset in the semi-finals of the Northern Athletics Conference volleyball tournament. Third-seeded Edgewood eliminated No. 2 Benedictine last night three-games-to-one. Top-seeded Dominican shut out Maranatha Baptist 3-0 in the other semi. Edgewood will play at Dominican tomorrow for the tournament title.

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For the second straight year, Torey DeLozier of Maranatha Baptist has been named the Northern Athletics Conference volleyball player-of-the-year. The junior outside hitter leads the NCAA Division-Three with six-point-four-five kills and seven-point-three-one points per set. Also, senior Kathleen Collingbourne of the Milwaukee School of Engineering was named by the league's coaches as the defensive player-of-the-year. Abby Sattler of Chilton was chosen as the freshman-of-the-year for Benedictine. And Jennifer Wildes of Benedictine is the coach-of-the-year, after leading her team to a second-place finish in the NAC at 10-2. DeLozier and Collingbourne also highlight a 12-member all-conference first team. Sattler made the All-Freshman squad.

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