Marquette Women's Soccer Slips Past Xavier

I feel bad for Xavier's Rachel Piccus.

The junior goalkeeper from Solon, Ohio, played 91 really great minutes.  She faced 20 shots from the Marquette offense, and she stopped all eight that were on frame.  Three saves came in the first 45 minutes, and five more came after halftime as the Golden Eagles poured on the offensive pressure in an attempt to break the scoreless tie.  Marquette's efforts fell short as regulation ended, sending things to overtime.  Even though a thunderstorm rolled through Milwaukee two hours before game time, Piccus had no problems with her footing or her ball handling.  She made several athletic moves to punch balls out and over the crossbar or even just knock a shot down before falling on it to maintain control.

The first 60 seconds of overtime was just fine for Piccus, although she didn't see a shot from Marquette.  The Golden Eagles gained possession and pushed towards the Xavier net.  And then this happened, courtesy of the foot of Cali Pyzdrowski:

Seemed like such a simple play, didn't it?  No one really pressuring Piccus, a relatively easy play, a gentle hop into the air to assist her, hands barely extended above her head.... and FLOOP, right on through and into the net for Pyzdrowski's first ever collegiate goal.

The win moves Marquette to 2-2-0 in Big East play, and has them in possession of six points through four matches.  That's good enough for a four-way tie for fourth place as we reach the swing point of the nine match league schedule.  Xavier falls to 0-3-0 in conference play.

Up Next: Marquette returns to the Valley on Sunday at 1pm Central for the midpoint game of the Big East slate.  They'll host Providence, one of the other three teams with six points in the league table.  The Friars are coming off a 1-0 double overtime win against Villanova on Thursday.

(video via GoMarquette.com)