The Golden Eagles will wrap up 2024 with a visit to South Orange.
I think it’s safe to say that, at least from an outside perspective, it’s hard to call Chris Allen’s first season as Marquette women’s soccer head coach a definitive success. The Golden Eagles are going to miss the Big East tournament for the seventh consecutive season. They have long since passed the mark where they have a chance to finish the year with a winning record, either overall or only in Big East play. That will mean extending those two streaks to three straight and seven straight seasons respectively. I clearly believe that this is not what Allen intended to happen. I know, I know, big stretch.
But!
A win in the season finale will mean that Marquette would finish the 2024 season with one more victory than they had a year ago! That’s something. Same for Big East play, a win means one more win than they had in 2023. And! Marquette’s facing the team that’s directly behind them in the standings in this final match, so a win makes sure the Golden Eagles stay in front of them!
While the season will definitely end after Thursday night, it doesn’t mean that there’s not something to play for when the Golden Eagles make their way out east. End it on a high note and be able to say that MU’s at least a teensy little bit better than they were before Allen took over.
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Big East Match #10: at Seton Hall Pirates (4-11-3, 1-6-2 Big East)
Date: Thursday, October 31, 2024
Time: 5pm Central
Location: Owen T. Carroll Field, South Orange, New Jersey
Streaming: FloSports
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteWSOC
Marquette is 9-3-1 all time against Seton Hall. That’s a great all-time series, but it’s been going Seton Hall’s way lately. The last two seasons have been 1-0 losses for the Golden Eagles, with one each in New Jersey and Wisconsin.
Seton Hall comes in with a five match losing streak. They’ve scored just two goals in that stretch while giving up 10 on the other end. Their last three contests have all been decided by one goal, however. I can say they got a little unlucky against Butler, since the winner was scored in the 83rd minute, but we can’t say the same about Creighton or UConn. The Bluejays were up 2-0 after 20 minutes and SHU only pulled one back with six seconds left in regulation, while the Huskies scored just before the 20 minute mark while outshooting the Pirates 21-4. Those are pretty definitive one goal losses, if we’re being honest about it.
Part of Seton Hall’s problems this season, especially compared to last year when they were 6-7-5 overall and 2-4-4 in Big East play, can probably be related to Natalie Tavana’s scoring. A year ago, she was Big East Offensive Player of the Year with 12 goals and two assists. This year? A few more shots but roughly the same percentage of shots on goal…… but only two goals to go with three assists. She is one of just three Pirates with more than one goal on the season, but she’s also shooting the ball more than twice as much as anyone else, so you can see the related difficulties. Officially, Tavana is the points leader thanks to those assists, as Chiara Pucci only has the team lead in goals with three as far as points go.
Anna Prawer has started every game in net for Seton Hall, but Avery Strohecker has come off the bench in 17 of SHU’s contests. The match Strohecker missed was their game against DePaul back on October 17th. That does mean she’s played the second half in the last three games, so we can presume that the Pirates will do the splitting again on Thursday. Statistically speaking, Strohecker’s the better option, letting in just 1.18 goals per 90 minutes and stopping 80% of shots on frame. Those numbers go up to 1.79 and down to 69.1% respectively for Prawer, so it definitely seems like it will be in Marquette’s interests to push forward to score as much as possible in the first half.