2014 Marquette Women's Soccer Preview: The Newcomers

We've predicted some awards, we've taken a glance at who is returning for head coach Markus Roeders in 2014.  Now we take a look at the newcomers to the Marquette women's soccer team, although some of them aren't actually new to Marquette

Slightly Familiar Faces

Marquette has four players on the roster who are returning from 2013, but didn't play.  Molly Pfeiffer, Anna Jurken, and Lisa Roman all will be redshirt freshmen this fall, while, for whatever reason, Emilee Myrtinger is listed as a sophomore on the roster.  Myrtinger was in a knee brace pretty much as soon as the 2013 season started, so it's up in the air whether or not she's going to be active and ready for 2014.  I managed to catch the spring game against Notre Dame and got to see Roman score a goal against the Irish.  Roman's listed on the roster as a defender, but a defender with the kind of touch Roman had to score that goal could be a useful component for the Golden Eagles this fall.  With Pfeiffer and Myrtinger listed as forwards and Jurken as a midfielder, that's a nice dose of experience with Marquette's system boosted into the roster.

The Transfer

As was the case last year with Alex Heffron, Marquette has one new transfer this season.  Meegan Johnston has joined the Golden Eagles after one season with Illinois.  The offensively minded midfielder had a goal and three assists in 18 appearances for the Illini in 2013, with the goal coming in overtime against a Louisville squad that made the NCAA tournament.  Johnston earned varsity letters each of her four years at Carmel Catholic High School in Mundelein, including a senior year campaign that carried with it conference and regional titles, not to mention 27 goals and All-State honors for Johnston.  Marquette is going to have to find a way to replace the scoring of Maegan Kelly and Taylor Madigan, amongst others, and Johnston will most likely get her chances to fit in for the Golden Eagles.

The Freshmen

College Sports Madness is a fun website.  They're kind enough to have a list of the top women's soccer recruits in the country available for free, and as we all know, you can't beat free.  In any case, for a program that's won five straight Big East regular season titles and has qualified for six straight NCAA tournaments, I was surprised to find out that Marquette has just one player on CSM's Top 115 recruits, with forward Carrie Madden from Deer Park, Illinois, checking in at #91 on the list.  There's two things to make you feel better about this development.  Number 1 is that Madden is one of just three Big East players on the list, so it's not like MU is losing an arms race here.  The other thing is that if we take a swing over to Top Drawer Soccer's recruiting page, you'll find that they have Marquette with six incoming freshmen with a four star ranking, including Madden and midfielder Katie Ciesiulka, the younger sister of long time men's soccer midfielder Bryan Ciesiulka.  Also earning a four star ranking in Marquette's freshman class is forward Emily Mouille, midfielder Caroline Fink, and defenders Madison Dunk and Kristen Timmer.

In addition to those six players, Marquette also has one three star recruit, forwards Heather Handwork, the younger sister of current MU sophomore Ashley.  Also joining the team this season are two midfielders, Eli Beard and Ryley Bugay, both of whom are unranked.