Marquette Women’s Soccer Holds On For 2-1 Win vs Seton Hall

For the fourth straight match, Marquette women’s soccer took an early 2-0 lead on Thursday night against Seton Hall.

For the first time in four matches, Marquette did not hand that lead back to their opponent.

Marquette came away with a 2-1 win over the Pirates as they took the lead in the first five minutes and never relinquished it. This has been a problem for the Golden Eagles over the past three games. Each time, they had taken a 2-0 lead, and each time, they had allowed the other team to knot the match at two goals. MU had been lucky to score late game winners in the first two, but in the Big East opener against Creighton, the Bluejays forced overtime where they eventually found a goal to defeat Marquette.

Thursday night was different, though. Darian Powell, making just her second start of the year, found the back of the net in the fourth minute on a seeing-eye cross from Morgan Proffitt. The cross itself was the product of some hustle on Proffitt’s part, as it came after a free kick from Madison Dunker that went long to the far side of the net. Proffitt hurried after it before it went over the end line and smashed it back into the middle. Somehow, it found its way through a pile of traffic in front of the net, including Seton Hall keeper Anna MacLean, to the waiting feet of Powell for her third goal of the year.

MU earned their fourth straight 2-0 lead in the 26th minute when senior Liz Bartels fed a darting Carrie Madden who made some quick moves and slammed it home for her third goal of the season. Marquette would finish the opening 45 minutes with a vintage possession performance, outshooting the Pirates 5-0.

Seton Hall would claw one back quickly after halftime, leading to a lot of dread about what the future held for Marquette. Katie Landes scored her first marker of the year on a little bit of a weird play. She got a head on a ball from Emily Rimdzius, but Landes popped it up into the air. The geometry of it threw MU keeper Maddy Henry off and it slipped easily into the net to make it 2-1 with less than 40 minutes to play.

Marquette went back to doing what they were doing in the first half, though. They ended up outshooting the Pirates 9-3 in the second half to lock down on defense and preserve their lead for their first Big East win of the year.

Up Next: Marquette kicks off Homecoming Week on Sunday when they face St. John’s. The Red Storm (6-1-4) are undefeated in league play through two matches with a win over Seton Hall and a scoreless draw with Butler.