2015 Marquette Women's Soccer Preview: The Newcomers

Last week, we took a look at the women returning to Markus Roeders' roster from the 2014 team.  Now we'll take a look at the newcomers.  This post had to wait until after Thursday evening's 1-1 exhibition draw with the Wisconsin Badgers.  Given the nature of the roster sizes involved in soccer, it's impossible to tell what kind of impact the freshmen or transfers will really have until you actually get the players on the field and see how the coaching staff wants to deploy them.  Now that we've gotten that out of the way, we can reasonably assess the other side of the roster.

Newcomers That Played Against Wisconsin

If I was going to pick two newcomers to the roster to get on the field against the Badgers, it would have been Caitlin Carroll and Allison Jacobson, and that's exactly who Roeders put into the game.  Carroll is a sophomore transfer from Dayton, so thumbs up to her for seeing the light and escaping.  She saw action in 14 of Dayton's 23 games including 2 starts as the Flyers found themselves in the NCAA tournament at the end of the season.  I would have predicted that she managed to get in the exhibition match and that's without knowing that Erin Holland wouldn't be playing.

Jacobson is slightly more surprising than Carroll, since she's a freshman and all.  But, people familiar with Marquette's women's soccer team are currently asking a question to themselves and let me answer it for you: Yes, Allison is Emily and Cara's younger sister.  The Jacobson twins had a highly decorated career playing for the Golden Eagles, so it's not surprising that Roeders would automatically trust their younger sister with some playing time.

Everybody Else

First, we'll start with the three freshman that we almost assuredly won't see on the pitch this season.  Sloane Carlson is a goalkeeper from St. Louis, and even though she's the only other goalkeeper on the roster, I'd think it's safe to expect that Amanda Engel will occupy all of Marquette's minutes during her senior season.  The other two are midfielder Courtney Dugan (Glen Ellyn, IL) and forward/midfielder Hailey VanDerLeest, and both of those women are listed on MU's preseason prospectus as definitely redshirting for the 2015 season.  I'll admit that I'm kind of bummed about the latter one, as I was already writing "MORE LIKE VANDERMOST" jokes in my head for when she scored a goal.  It'll have to wait for next season, I suppose.

That leaves us with five freshmen that could reasonably see time at some point this season.  Forward Jamie Kutey (Overland Park, KS) is the player most likely to get on the field.  She set her high school's record for goals in a career with 88, leading St. Thomas Aquinas to four state titles along the way.  She's got a knack for scoring in big moments, with goals in 19 of the 20 state tournament games she played in, including the overtime game winner in the title game in her junior year and 13 game winners overall.  Are you surprised that she was a Top Drawer Soccer Spring Second Team All American?  No?  Good.

Leah Celarek (Schaumburg, IL) is the other freshman forward on the roster.  She comes to Marquette as a Top 150 recruit, and while MU lists her as a forward/midfielder, Celarek was the 49th best midfield prospect in the country according to Top Drawer Soccer.  Flipping to the other side of the field, Bri Jaeger (Cedarburg, WI)  is the lone freshman defender on the roster.  She's a local product, having attended high school at Divine Savior Holy Angels.  Top Drawer Soccer rates Jaeger as a four star prospect and one of the 30 best players in the Midwest.  She played center back on her club team (which she shared with two of her fellow freshmen), and yet still somehow led the team in goals in her final club season.

Roeders has two freshmen in the midfield this season.  Daniell Sobelman (Glendale, WI)  is one of the two freshmen that played with Bri Jaeger (Allison Jacobson is the other) for FC Wisconsin Eclipse.  She played four years of varsity soccer at Nicolet High School in the Milwaukee suburbs, and was second team all-conference in 2014.  The other freshman is Emma McCarthy (Cary, IL).  She only earned a varsity letter during her senior season at Cary-Grove High School, but based on her Marquette bio, it appears as that was by choice.  She was incredibly active with her club team, winning three club state titles and earning a spot as a United State Youth Soccer National Team pool player back in 2010.