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A year ago, Marquette ran through the Big East undefeated on their way to their fifth straight regular season title and second consecutive Big East tournament title. The season crashed to an end with a 1-0 loss to Western Michigan in the first round of the NCAA tournament, and it would appear that head coach Markus Roeders is determined to not have that happen again.
Marquette women's soccer has announced their 2014 schedule, and it features eight matches against NCAA tournament teams from last season. Five of those games will come outside of Big East play, and only two of those non-conference matchups will happen at Valley Fields.
After the yearly exhibition against Wisconsin, MU opens the season at home when they face Loyola-Chicago on Friday, August 22. That match will be part of the yearly Marquette Invitational, which will also include Northwestern, whom MU will play on August 24th, and Farleigh Dickinson. The NCAA teams start the next weekend, when MU travels to face Minnesota on Friday before returning to play Nebraska on Sunday. Both squads were tournament teams a year ago, with the Huskers earning a #2 regional seed.
Colorado College hosts MU the following weekend as part of their invitational tournament. The Golden Eagles will play New Mexico on Friday before tangling with the host Tigers on Sunday. Colorado College won the Conference USA regular season and tournament titles in 2013, but will play in the Mountain West starting in 2014.
The last two non-conference tournament teams come on September 11th and 14th. MU will host UWM at the Valley on the 11th before heading to College Station to play Texas A&M on the 14th. From there, Marquette wraps up the non-conference schedule by hosting Kansas and LSU as the first half of a four game homestand.
The second half of that homestand are the first two of five home games on the Big East schedule for Marquette. They'll open conference play on September 25th when MU hosts Creighton. The Bluejays were the regular season opener in 2013, albeit on the road. Senior Night will be on Sunday, October 19th, when MU hosts DePaul. The Golden Eagles will wrap up conference play with two road games, including the season finale against Butler on Halloween.
The Big East tournament will start on campus sites on November 4th, with the semifinals and finals coming the following weekend at a yet to be determined site. It will likely not be Valley Fields, as MU hosted the 2013 finals.
You can check the full schedule with times and so forth on GoMarquette.com or even in PDF format, if that's how you roll.
