Monday was a night to forget for the Bruins.

In its second Big Ten conference game, UCLA men’s soccer (3-2-2, 1-1 Big Ten) suffered a 4-1 loss to No. 8 Wisconsin (6-1, 1-1 Big Ten) in Madison on Monday night. The game marked UCLA’s second loss of the season.

Monday’s first half could not have been more difficult for the possession-focused Bruins. A relentless Badgers press denied the Bruins from keeping possession of the ball and led to a threatening cross from Wisconsin midfielder Trip Fleming in the 24th minute.

Junior goalkeeper Sam Joseph rose to meet the ball, but Wisconsin forward Dean Boltz got there first, heading in his eighth goal of the season – tying him for the second-most goals of any player in the country.

“We knew that they were going to try to put as many balls into the box as possible. … We just didn’t do a great job managing that in some moments and we paid the price,” said coach Ryan Jorden. “The tough part is this game is pretty simple.”

UCLA’s efforts to retain the ball were met by relentless intensity from the Wisconsin players. Joseph, who recorded a career-high nine saves, was constantly met by shots from Wisconsin players, but also with an electric home crowd, banging the sideline boards in close proximity to his goal.

Only moments after the Badgers first goal, the situation became even more difficult for the Bruins, when Wisconsin defender Roberto Burlew sent in a low cross from the right side in the 31st minute. Joseph deflected the immediate danger, but Wisconsin forward Kevin Andrews rocketed the goalkeeper’s deflection into the top right corner, marking the second goal of the game.

Fleming added a third for the Badgers four minutes before halftime – sending the Bruins to the locker room down 3-0, which turned out to be an insurmountable deficit.

“They (the Badgers) worked really hard,” Jorden said. “I think they set out to win the game by halftime and they put us under an immense amount of pressure.”

The halftime break allowed UCLA to reset and come out firing in the second half, led by the substitutions of junior midfielder Cam Wilkerson and sophomore defender Philip Naef. In the 49th minute, Naef led a counter attack down the right side and fired a shot, which was cleared off the line. The rebound was put home by junior forward Nikolai Rojel, who scored his second goal of the season and made the score 3-1 with 40 minutes remaining.

“Coming out of halftime, I thought our response was very, very good,” Jorden said. “You’re three-nil down, your team could wilt under it. But I actually thought the response was terrific.”

The Bruins continued to push through the second half, with graduate student midfielder Edrey Caceres and Rojel helping to create 12 shots that were denied by Wisconsin. Freshman defender Shakir Nixon continued to build on his positive performances, consistently delivering crosses into the box.

“We missed a couple chances that you really just have to score if you’re going to win games at this level,” Jordan said.

The Badgers put the nail in the coffin in the 85th minute when Wisconsin forward Thomas Raimbault found the net off another cross into UCLA’s 18-yard box. Raimbault transferred to Wisconsin from UCLA last year.

Jorden said that the amount of travel and time away from home impacted the team after they played their first Big Ten matchup on Friday, in a 1-0 win at Northwestern.

“It’s hard on a Friday night, going and playing away, and then the travel to do recovery and being away from home – and then having to play another really good team,” Jorden said.

Jorden added that his team can use the difficult experience as an opportunity to get better.

“OK, how do we try to get better now?” Jorden said. “It gives us an opportunity to try to do a little bit of learning and have some significant growth coming out of taking a loss.”

UCLA will have a chance to grow when they face No. 22 Michigan at home Saturday.