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When: Thursday, October 17, at 6pm Central
Where: Owen T. Carroll Field, in South Orange, NJ
Audio/Visual: You'll have to pay for streaming video because Seton Hall does not love you. Live stats will be here.
Twitter Updates: @MUWomensSoccer
Without an official page for women's soccer on the Big East's website, I've been forced to keep track of statistics on my own. It hasn't been the most fun thing to do in the history of the known universe, but it's the only way to keep track of what's going on in the league. I've also been keeping track of league standings since Big East play started. From very careful examination of the standings (read as: simple math), I've figured out the following:
With a win over Seton Hall and a DePaul win over Butler, Marquette will clinch a spot in the Big East tournament.
Only six teams will make the tournament, with #1 & #2 in the standings getting byes to the semifinals. Marquette currently sits in first place with 15 points, and a win over SHU moves them to 18. Seton Hall and Butler are currently tied for that sixth place spot with 6 points each. A DePaul win over Butler would keep the Bulldogs at 6 points and unable to tie Marquette with only nine points left possible in the three remaining matches.
Hopefully I haven't confused anyone.
Marquette has slipped back into all of the notable national rankings courtesy of the 4-0 curbstomping of Georgetown, which was a consensus top 10 team at the time. They're up to #10 in the Soccer America Top 25, #20 in the NSCAA poll, and 24th in Top Drawer Soccer's Top 25. More importantly, they're fourth - FOURTH - in the NCAA's RPI calculation. That's what happens when you win seven straight matches and only allow four goals in the process.
Maegan Kelly and Mary Luba share the team lead in goals with six, while Kelly has the team lead in points with 19 and assists at seven. Kelly already holds the program's all time assists record with 35 career helpers, and she sits at 116 career points, just seven points back of Kelly Roethe's all time points record. Roethe recorded 123 points on 49 goals and 25 points from 1996-1999. Amanda Engel picked up her third straight Big East Goalkeeper of the Week this past week, even though she didn't even play the full 90 minutes in MU's only match of the week. Engel's goals-against average has moved to just short of one goal per 90 minutes played, and she's carrying a shutout streak of 194:39 minutes.
The Pirates are mired in a three game losing streak, and have only score one goal in that stretch. All three matches have come in Big East play, and have come after the Pirates seemed to be on an upswing after a three match winning streak. Katie Ritter has six goals this season, which ties her for fourth most in the league when you discount the 15 goals scored by futuristic time traveling goal scoring robot Rachel Daly. Ritter also picked up an Offensive Player of the Week nod earlier this season, while goalkeeper Jennifer Pettigrew has been on the Weekly Honor Roll twice, and freshman Frankie Maier poked into the Honor Roll once. Pettigrew is giving up 1.23 goals per 90 minutes while saving 78% of shots on goal, which are pretty decent numbers for someone who's played every minute this season for a team so far under .500.