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The Marquette men's soccer team faced off against Georgetown, the team which snapped their undefeated streak almost a month ago, during the Big East championship semi-finals on Friday afternoon. The game was scoreless until the final minute of the first half when Steve Neumann took a pass from Jimmy Nealis, spun around, and snapped it back past Charlie Lyon and two defenders. Georgetown's momentum carried into the second half when it felt that the Hoyas were controlling possession and would inevitably break through for another score. Instead, Adam Lysak charged down the field, temporary giving up custody of the ball to Bryan Ciesulka, before he rocketed it past a diving Tomas Gomez to equalize.
Unfortunately, Neumann bedeviled the Eagles once more: his corner kick in the 110th minutes found Big East Rookie of the Year Brandon Allen: Allen's goal broke up the double overtime tie and ended Marquette's tournament run. Highlights, including footage of all three goals, can be found on the Big East's site.
The men will learn their destiny tomorrow when they will presumably hear their name called during the NCAA selection show which kicks off at 4:30 pm local time.
The second half of the doubleheader took place hundreds of miles away at Valley Fields as the women took on Illinois State in the opening round of the NCAA championship. Redbirds goalkeeper Aryn Newsom was quickly overwhelmed: she stopped a Taylor Madigan shot easily just three minutes into the match, but Lisa Philbin beat her a minute later to put the Eagles up one quickly. Ally Miller made it a 2-0 lead in the 27th by getting the ball past the diving Newsom.
After the halftime break, the Redbirds came out playing like a team on the ropes. Illinois State was aggressive, but still needed Marquette's help to get quality shots on goal: fouls just outside the box set up favorable shots in the 47th and 55th minutes, but the Redbirds could not convert. In the 68th minute, Newsom charged out of the box, but was unable to cleanly scoop up the ball and Maegan Kelly kicked the ball over her arms for an apparent goal. The goal didn't count and a foul was issued in ISU's favor, but they promptly turned the ball back over to Marquette: Emily Jacobson passed to Mary Luba and her goal sealed the 3-0 victory for Marquette.
Marquette will travel to Provo, Utah for a November 15th matchup against the Princeton Tigers.