The Wisconsin women’s soccer team has started the 2004 season with an offensive explosion. Undefeated heading into their home opener, the Badgers are making themselves known not only around the Big Ten conference but also throughout the nation, as they have ascended to No. 18 in national rankings. Much of this success can be attributed to the strong play of senior midfielder/forward Amy Vermeulen.

Vermeulen, a native of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (Canada), has quite arguably emerged as the Badgers’ leader with her impressive play early this season. After five games, she currently leads the team in total points with eight goals and three assists for 11 points. These statistics are even more noteworthy considering Vermeulen sat out the entire 2003 campaign as a medical red shirt.

“I’ve pretty much been constantly playing all my life, but to have sit out a year is really hard,” Vermeulen said. “Just to see everybody practice every day and not being able to get out there. It’s just not really happened to me before, so to sit out the entire season was really frustrating, but it took me a while to get back into it, I guess, and now I’m ready to go.”

Vermeulen is trying to get back into the form she had in 2002, when she ranked second on the team in goals (seven), assists (eight) and points (22) and displayed her clutch skills by hitting four game-winning goals. After her injury, it was difficult to say if she would be able to re-establish herself as a scoring threat, but Vermeulen feels she’s in even better shape after her recovery.

“I think I feel a lot better actually from playing a lot more in the summer since 2002,” Vermeulen said. “I think I’m in a little better shape, a little more strong, so I’m excited.”

After her blazing performances in Friday’s home opener against North Dakota State in which she scored twice in the second half to protect a 3-0 win and Sunday’s game versus Boston College where Vermeulen posted a hat trick in a 5-3 win, there are no doubts about her being back in form following the injury. Quite possibly the hardest part about the injury wasn’t getting back to soccer form but simply getting back into shape to play both soccer and hockey, which Vermeulen does for the Badgers.

“(Playing two sports) is difficult, but it’s fun because it’s a nice break from each sport,” Vermeulen said. “Soccer, I’m basically starting constantly from April to November so it’s a nice little change to go to hockey from November to March, I guess. It’s basically the same; it’s just that I’m switching sports. I mean, obviously skills, but I’m still playing soccer — I’m still doing spring season while I’m doing hockey, so it’s not like I’m doing two different things at the same time; I just keep switching sports.”

While Vermeulen was hesitant at first to pinpoint which sport was her favorite, she had no doubts that soccer is her dominant sport.

“I would have to say I’m stronger in soccer just because it’s pretty much my dominant one and I’ve gone through a lot higher levels definitely with it and so I guess I’d have to say it’s my favorite, but I enjoy hockey a lot,” Vermeulen said. “I mean, I’ve been playing ever since I was little. I’ve played both ever since I was little, so I don’t know. I guess I’d have to say its soccer, though, just because I’ve had more success at it, I guess.”

Hockey season, however, is a couple months away, and Vermeulen still has her sights set on finishing the soccer season on a successful note. While the Badgers have undeniably sprinted to a fast start this year, the Big Ten season will provide plenty of competition for Wisconsin.

“Every single Big Ten game is definitely a challenge,” Vermeulen said. “I think we can’t go into any Big Ten game thinking that it’s going to be a cakewalk, thinking that we’re going to win. I think that, just like every other game, we just have to go in knowing that, no matter what we’ve heard about the opponents or what people have said about them and just play our game and go on with a good attitude.”

Despite the tough road ahead of them in the Big Ten season, Vermeulen and the Badgers have their sights set on making the most of their fast start and finishing with a notable performance in the NCAA tournament. Vermeulen believes that as long as all the pieces come together, this year’s Badger women’s soccer team has the right group of players assembled to make some noise in the postseason.

“I think, as a team, we just want to see where things will take us,” Vermeulen said. “Hopefully (we will) end up first in the Big Ten, win the Big Ten tournament, make NCAA’s, and see how far we can go just like any other team in the league, I guess, and I think we can do it. I think we have a good, solid core here and a solid group of girls.”