#22 Providence? Dropped.
#12/#13 Notre Dame? Shut out.
#23/24 West Virginia? Just another victim.
3 ranked opponents for Marquette's men's soccer team in the last 8 days, 3 wins.
As mentioned already, the Mountaineers are the most recent victim, falling 2-1 on Saturday night at Valley Fields. Both sides played to a standstill through the first 20 minutes, with neither team being able to attempt a shot. But a 4+ minute flurry of shots from Marquette ended in the 28th minute with Bryan Ciesiulka on the sideline throwing in to C. Nortey, who returned it to Ciesiulka for a cross to the far post. That's where Dennis Holowaty broke through and registered his first goal of the season by heading past WVU keeper Justin Holmes.
From there, West Virginia controlled play, getting 7 of their 14 shots in the match between the MU goal and halftime, including a free kick off of a MU handball that Allen Flott that clanged off the crossbar. They carried that momentum through halftime, getting an equalizer just 33 seconds into the second half from Uwem Etuk. But the Golden Eagles knew they had what it takes to succeed. In the 79th minute, Kelmend Islami got a cross through to Sebastian Jansson, who knows a thing or two about game winners against ranked teams. Jansson timed the bounce of the ball exactly right again and booted the bounding ball past Holmes for the lead.
The win keeps Marquette unbeaten and untied in Big East play. They return to action on Wednesday night at Valley Fields against Georgetown. The Hoyas were ranked #20 in last week's NSCAA poll.
Let's go to the highlights!
After the jump: more wins from women's soccer and volleyball!
A 2 match weekend trip to New York State led to 2 wins for the #7/#13 women's soccer team. Friday's match with St. John's ended 2-1 in favor of Marquette. 7 shots in the first 25 minutes dictated the way the pace would go for the game, and Taylor Madigan capitalized on a Maegan Kelly corner kick for Marquette's 8th shot and first goal of the match. Cara Jacobson tacked on some insurance in the 76th minute that turned into the game winner 5 minutes later when St. John's broke keeper Natalie Kulla's shutout streak at 549:25 with a goal from Caitlyn McLaughlin. That was just St. John's 2nd shot of the match, compared to 17 for Marquette.
With the win over St. John's in the bag, Marquette was looking to lock up home field advantage in the Big East Tournament quarterfinals against Syracuse on Sunday afternoon. The Orange looked to use a physical style to disrupt Marquette's attack, committing the same number of fouls (7) in the first half as both teams combined for shots (4 for MU, 3 for SU). But you don't get ranked in the top 15 in the country in two different polls by not adapting at halftime. Within 9 minutes of halftime, Maegan Kelly had put MU up 2-0 and from there, it was Easy Street. In the 60th minute, Ally Miller added her first goal of the season to her assist on Kelly's first goal to make it 3-0 and Britney Scott made it 4-0 in the 77th minute. It took the Golden Eagles just 5 second half shots to record those 4 goals and make Natalie Kulla's 9th shutout of the season simply academic.
Volleyball blazed the "Beat Syracuse" trail on Saturday afternoon. While they dropped the first set 25-18 due to a disastrous .022 hitting percentage, MU turned it around from that point out. Led by - surprise - Danielle Carlson's crazy .467 hitting, the Golden Eagles hit .314, .324, and an outstanding .484 to win the next three sets and close Syracuse out, 25-23, 25-23 and 25-14. Ciara Jones led MU with 17 kills while Carlson tacked on 16 and Ashley Beyer added 13. Befitting an offensive explosion like that, setter Chelsea Heier recorded 57 assists to go along with 10 digs and her third double double of the season.