The Golden Eagles return to Milwaukee for a pair of contests in search of their first win of the season.
It’s getting pretty late in the season pretty early in Chris Allen’s first season in charge of Marquette women’s soccer.
I’m not just saying that because the Golden Eagles are winless with three defeats and a draw through four matches. I’m saying that because Marquette is exhibiting a similar inability to mount an attack to what we saw last year. After 19 matches in 2023, Marquette was getting outshot by more than six shots per game, and to put a little bit of an analytical spin on things, MU was attempting less than 34% of the total shots taken in their matches.
In 2024, through four contests, the shot differential is 8.5 per game on average. As you can guess, the ratio is worse, as just 30.2% of the shots in Marquette’s matches are coming from the foot of a Golden Eagle.
So, yeah. For the moment, there’s not a lot of reasons for a lot of optimism as to how Allen’s squad is going to suddenly fix this midway through the campaign. It may be as simple as “stop looking for a perfect shot” as Marquette put two of their five shots against Western Michigan on frame. That’s a season best 40% of total shots on goal, but five total shots in a game isn’t getting it done.
We can’t point at a level of competition situation here, either. Northwestern was picked to finish 12th in the 18 team Big Ten this season, and they outshot Marquette 18-3. Kansas City has had four straight losing seasons, and they were picked to finish sixth in a nine team Summit League…. and they outshot Marquette 10-8 and should have won the match if not for what is looking more and more like a lucky corner kick header goal in the waning seconds.
Part of the problem may be an existing continuity problem. Seven women have started all four matches for the Golden Eagles so far, so it’s not really a match-to-match issue. However, per Marquette’s own preview for this coming weekend, there has been someone making their first ever start for Marquette on the field to begin all four matches so far this season. In addition to that, 11 women have made their first ever Marquette start through four matches. Six of those were covered by the season opener all alone, but that’s still five first time starters in the next three matches. At the end of the day, Marquette’s biggest problem might just be that this iteration of the Golden Eagles just isn’t familiar with each other quite yet. If that’s the biggest problem, then that’s life, I guess.
The next two matches are part of the 2024 Marquette Challenge Cup, which is being co-hosted by the Milwaukee Panthers across town. The teams on the road will switch spots after Game #1, and a tournament winner will be declared after the two match results are in the books.
REMINDER: Marquette’s home contests are streamed nearly exclusively on FloSports, as are all Big East home matches and all league schedule contests. If you are paying full price for FloSports at $30 a month, you are doing it wrong. Please use this link to pay less than half of that, and even less if you can use a Marquette.edu email address.
Match #5: vs Illinois-Chicago Flames (1-2-0)
Date: Thursday, August 29, 2024
Time: 7pm Central
Location: Valley Fields, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Streaming: Flo FC
Live Stats: Sidearm Stats
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteWSOC
Bluesky Updates: @AnonymousEagle
Marquette is 1-1-1 all time against UIC. Those contests have all happened in the last three seasons, and it’s been win, tie, loss in that order, with the loss as the only match that happened in Chicago. Why only three contests against a team that’s so close by? No idea, although the Flames have only been a program since 2014, and that hasn’t helped.
Illinois-Chicago was picked to finish third in the Missouri Valley Conference this season. 10 of the 11 first place votes went to the teams in front of them in the poll, but the Flames nearly slipped to fourth, maybe even fifth. UIC snagged 87 points, Northern Iowa picked up 85, and Valparaiso received 83 points. That’s a pretty close margin, and it does make it funnier that 6th place Murray State got a first place vote from somewhere.
The Flames are coming off a shutout loss to Purdue on Sunday, which was their first road game of the year. That was itself following a 3-2 loss to Eastern Michigan where UIC was up 1-0 at the half and 2-0 at the 48 minute mark. EMU managed the winner just past the 88 minute mark to hand Illinois-Chicago their first loss of the season. Given Marquette’s struggles to mount a persistent offense, it’s very interesting that UIC got outshot 15-5 by Purdue. Overall, UIC isn’t doing to badly in the shooting department, but that’s because they walloped Chicago State in shots, 14-3, in the opener.
No one has established themselves as a scoring threat for UIC yet. All four goals have come from four different women, while all three assists have come from three completely different women for a total of seven players recording at least a point so far. Sophia Jaime has at least gotten free in space the most this season, as she has a team high in shots with nine to get to her one goal on the season. Jaime was tied for the team lead in points last season with 12, and co-leader Makenna Maloy is back in 2024 as well. Maloy has one of UIC’s assists so far, as well as a second best five shots.
Lauren Keiser ended up being UIC’s minutes leader in net last season, and she has played all 270 minutes so far this year. Five goals allowed in three matches and just nine saves has led to some not-so-good stats for the 6-foot-tall redshirt senior from Florida, and it’s Marquette’s job to make sure they don’t improve.
Match #6: vs Minnesota Golden Gophers (2-0-0)
Date: Sunday, September 1, 2024
Time: 1pm Central
Location: Valley Fields, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Streaming: Flo FC
Live Stats: Sidearm Stats
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteWSOC
Bluesky Updates: @AnonymousEagle
Marquette is 2-6-1 all time against Minnesota. Most of the meetings have been by way of a home-and-home series, although there is a 2008 NCAA tournament match in Minneapolis, and this match is the third straight season that the two clubs have gotten together. Minnesota has won both of the last two meetings, both by shutout.
Minnesota is off to a solid start to the year, and it’s one that provides Marquette with an interesting measuring stick. The Gophers were picked to finish 14th in the 18 team Big Ten this year, and that means that the voters think Minnesota will be worse than the Northwestern squad that handled Marquette pretty handily. On top of that, Minnesota rallied from giving up a goal four minutes in against Creighton in their opener to beat the Bluejays 2-1 at the final horn. Minnesota’s goals both came from Caroline Birdsell in that match, and she booted them both in less than a minute apart in the second half. It could have been a lot worse for Creighton, as Minnesota outshot the Bluejays 12-5 in that match. Styles make fights, transitive property, etc., but it’s going to be interesting to see Marquette face an opponent believed to be lesser than Northwestern that still handled Creighton fairly easily.
The only other action that Minnesota has seen — other than their Thursday night visit to UW-Milwaukee before facing Marquette on Sunday — was a 4-1 “road” game against St. Thomas. I put road in quotes because the match was at UST, but that means it was five miles away in Saint Paul. That match turned into a bummer for Caroline Birdsell, as it meant that Khyah Harper is now leading the Gophers in points. Harper had a hat trick against the Tommies, closing out her account with a third marker in the 86th minute. She had a hand in all four goals scored by Minnesota there, as she had an assist on Sophia Romine’s goal in the fifth minute, too.
Sarah Martin hasn’t been tested all that much yet this season with Minnesota allowing just 13 shots through two matches. Her goals-against average is just fine with one let in during each contest, but only six shots have been on frame. One-third of all shots on goal have gone in, and that’s a Small Sample Size Theater thing, but Marquette has to test it.