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As I suspected when I first saw the schedule, this past weekend ended with two losses for Marquette women's soccer. After Friday's shutout at the hands of North Carolina, Marquette took on Duke yesterday in their second game of the Duke/Nike Classic. The Blue Devils were terrible hosts, as Laura Weinberg scored twice in the first 37 minutes to take a 2-0 halftime lead en route to a 5-2 win.
Duke (6-1-0) picked up their next two goals 18 seconds apart in the 70th minute before Kate Reigel and Taylor Madigan broke through in the 74th and 77th minutes respectively to cut the Blue Devils lead in half. Gilda Doria volleyed a ball past Amanda Engel (on in relief of Sofie Schunk) in the 80th minute to make any chance of a Marquette (3-2-1) comeback unrealistic.
Coach Markus Roeders saw value in the effort, though:
It was a good learning weekend for us and our team. Duke was very efficient in finishing their chances and we were much closer to scoring a third or fourth goal than the score indicates. It is hard to believe that we had more of the play in the second half, allowing three goals doesn't indicate it. I absolutely loved our fighting spirit in the last 25 minutes, it would have been easy to lower our heads and give up, but that isn't the mentality we have and it never will be.
In a bit of a bright spot for the Golden Eagles, Rachel Brown and Katie Hishmeh were named to the all-tournament team.
Up Next: Marquette begins the defense of their third consecutive American Division championship by heading to Pittsburgh on Thursday evening for a match against the Pitt Panthers.