After suffering two nasty losses on the road two weeks ago, Marquette women's soccer bounced back with two home shutout wins last week. That got them to 3-2-0 in Big East play, and those nine points are currently good enough for a tie for fourth place with Butler.
There's only four matches left in the regular season, so each match and the potential three points they contain become increasingly valuable in regards to the Big East tournament. Nothing has been decided for sure in any regard for any of the six playoff spots, so when MU gets a chance to play one of the teams in front of them, the Golden Eagles have to take advantage. That's the case on Sunday in Washington, D.C., since Georgetown sits in a tie for second place at 12 points.
The hope is that Marquette's defense is clicking after going two straight matches without allowing a goal. The Golden Eagles had a heavy possession advantage against Xavier, but needed a golden goal from Cali Pyzdrowski to earn the three points. Against Providence last Sunday, it was Liz Bartels rifling a rebound into the net in the 55th minute that made the difference. In both cases, Marquette got the goals they needed to win. Will they be able to do the same against the second best goal scoring offense in the Big East?
Big East Match #6: at Georgetown (9-5-0, 4-1-0 Big East)
When: Sunday, October 18, 2015, at 12pm Central
Where: Shaw Field in Washington, D.C.
Audio/Visual: The Big East Digital Network on Fox Sports Go has the streaming broadcast, plus there's live stats.
Twitter Updates: @MUWomensSoccer
The Hoyas have bounced back from a rough start to 2015 to assert themselves as a player in the Big East. Georgetown lost two of their first three matches and four of their nine non-conference contests, but they're 4-1-0 in Big East action, including handing St. John's just their second loss all season and only loss so far in Big East play. They are only carrying a one match winning streak coming into Sunday's contest, though, as they lost 1-0 at Butler in the match immediately preceding Wednesday's 3-0 win over Xavier.
There's one-half of a familiar name at the top of the Georgetown stat sheet. Rachel Corboz, the younger sister of four year terror Daphne Corboz, leads GU in goals (7) and in assists (6). Those totals have Corboz fifth in the league in goals and tied for the second most assists in the league, too. The Hoyas have five goal scorers that you need to worry about, including Corboz, but they get assists from all over: eight different players have registered helpers on the season and six of those have at least two.
Much like MU's Amanda Engel, Emma Newins is in her fourth season minding the Hoya net. Also much like Engel, either Newins has gotten worse (not likely) or Georgetown has struggled to assemble a defense around her as her career has progressed. Newins' current goals-against average of 1.35 is the worst of any of her seasons, as is her save percentage of .647.