The Golden Eagles tangle with a 1st year D1 outfit as well as their crosstown rivals.
Marquette head women’s soccer coach Chris Allen made his opinion about his team’s performance against #9 Notre Dame very clear in the official team press release/recap. I’ll repeat it here:
“A very disappointing result,” head coach Chris Allen said. ”When you are playing one of the top teams in the country at their place, you have to win the intangibles like energy, heart, toughness, belief, effort, passion, etc.
“Unfortunately, we did not display the fighting spirit necessary to pull off an upset and consequently were first-hand witnesses to Notre Dame’s athleticism, skill and execution,” Allen added. “The hope is that we learn some valuable lessons from this embarrassing loss.”
Marquette’s next two opponents are not on the level of #9 Notre Dame to say the least. They’re a combined 1-11-0 so far this season, although Milwaukee does have a Thursday contest at home against a so far unbeaten Harvard team before the Golden Eagles see them. These are the kinds of matches where, in theory, a team that just got excoriated by their head coach in public like that goes out and caves some heads in.
Hopefully, that’s what happens. At the very least, Marquette’s in need of some front to back quality performances. They haven’t had one of those this season to say the least, and I think the entire team, up to and including the mood of the head coach, would benefit from running two straight teams over with a great many shots and goals.
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Match #8: vs Mercyhurst Lakers (0-6-0)
Date: Thursday, September 12, 2024
Time: 5pm Central
Location: Valley Fields, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Streaming: Flo FC
Live Stats: Sidearm Stats
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteWSOC
Bluesky Updates: @AnonymousEagle
This is the first ever meeting between Marquette and Mercyhurst, but that’s because this is also Mercyhurst’s seventh ever Division 1 match.
Yep, this is the first season in Division 1 for Mercyhurst, as they officially joined the NEC on July 1st of this year. They had been a Division 2 athletic department before that, and while I presume that they had been planning this move for a long while, it was only announced in early April of this year.
For whatever it’s worth, Mercyhurst women’s soccer was pretty good last season. They went 16-4-1 overall with a 14-1-1 mark in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference. The Lakers lost in the semifinals of the conference tournament but still qualified for the NCAA tournament…. but took a 1-0 road loss in the first round.
As you can see from the record, that success a year ago has not translated to success at the Division 1 level so far. Their best offensive outing was in the opener when they scored twice. Their first ever Division 1 goal came from Rosie Bandura…. and it cut Duquesne’s lead in half in the 30th minute. Their second goal of the year came in the 58th minute of the match……. and made the score 6-2. Mercyhurst got outshot 35-3.
The Lakers have scored just one other goal this season. They got one across the line from Camille Bultel in the 89th minute against Northern Kentucky to just narrowly avoid a 2-0 shutout loss. The Norse outshot them 30-5 in that match.
On average, Mercyhurst is getting outshot 34-3 this season. That’s their average. 206 shots against, 22 for in six matches. Two different goalies have played at least 200 minutes already this year with Chelsea Radicia getting the start in the last three matches but only going the distance against NKU. Radicia has a goals against average of just barely under 4.00 while she stops over 72% of shots on frame. Again: Mercyhurst is allowing a metric ton of shots.
FUN FACT: This match will be the front end of a doubleheader with Marquette men’s soccer hosting D3 Edgewood for Senior Night for the Golden Eagles. I imagine they’ll start the festivities pretty quickly after the women’s match ends so they can start the men’s match about 30 minutes later.
Match #9: vs Milwaukee Panthers (1-5-0)
Date: Sunday, September 15, 2024
Time: 4pm Central
Location: Valley Fields, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Streaming: Flo FC
Live Stats: Sidearm Stats
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteWSOC
Bluesky Updates: @AnonymousEagle
Marquette is in a dead heat with Milwaukee with an all-time record of 11-11-8. The Golden Eagles pulled back even with the Panthers thanks to a 1-0 victory at Engelmann Stadium a year ago.
I’m not going to say that Milwaukee’s season is going as poorly as Mercyhurst’s is, but boy, it’s not far off. At least the Panthers have a 3-0 shutout home victory over UIC to hang their hat on. [checks notes] Yep, that’s the same UIC team that Marquette barely beat 1-0 on a goal in the 89th minute. Fun. In fairness, Milwaukee was the beneficiary of two penalty kick goals in that game and they only outshot the Flames 15-13.
We do have a lot of comparison points for Marquette and Milwaukee, or at least we will as the season goes along. There’s the other half of that Marquette Challenge Cup, which was both teams hosting Minnesota. The Gophers came out ahead on both, although Minnesota had to fend off a penalty kick fueled charge from the Panthers as opposed to rallying from down one against Marquette. Milwaukee also has a 4-2 road loss to Xavier on their books where the Musketeers went up 2-0 in the first 15 minutes before adding another right before the half and then another in the 73rd minute. MU won’t play Xavier until the second to last match of the regular season, so it could be a totally different XU team by the time we get there on October 27th.
Marquette is going to have to keep an eye on Lainey Higgins. The senior midfielder from Appleton has three goals on 11 shots this season, both team highs, and she’s one of just five women to start all six matches for Milwaukee. No one else on the team has a crooked number in either the goals or assists column, although Kayla Rollins and Kristina Karlof do have one of each.
Muskego native Parker Donahugh started in net last time out for Milwaukee, and she went the full 90 against Wisconsin. She didn’t play in the UIC match immediately previously though, as that starting job went to redshirt freshman Lilly Hanke. Donahugh has the most minutes played in her four matches and four starts at over 350, but she’s letting in 2.77 goals per 60 minutes of action and stopping under 61% of shots on goal. Technically speaking, Hanke’s an improvement in both departments, but that’s only on 138 minutes of action to this point of the year, and the UIC match was the only full 90 minute match she’s played.