Marquette Men’s Soccer Suffers 1-0 Loss To Wisconsin

The positives on the stat sheet didn’t turn into a victory for Marquette on Wednesday night as they lost to Wisconsin, 1-0. It’s the third straight loss for MU, and they’re now 3-4-3 on the season and winless in their last six matches. That streak shares three straight draws with the six match unbeaten streak that the Golden Eagles had going earlier this season.

While the offense failed to put the ball in the net for the second consecutive match and the third time in the last four contests, you can’t say that the offensive system was a failure for Marquette. They finished the night with a 15-7 advantage in shots, including 10-3 in the opening 45 minutes. Marquette’s pressure extended to an advantage in corner kicks over the Badgers, getting eight attempts against just two for the visitors from Madison.

Yet, through all of this, it was UW’s Mike Catalano slotting home a feed from Brian Hail in transition in the 22nd minute that made the difference in the match. Check out the highlight video here, it’s the very first thing:

Hail gets a chance to come to a complete stop and send a simple pass across to Catalano while MU’s four backs are rushing to create some kind of a defensive structure in front of keeper Mac Wheeler. Between the commotion in front of him and the angle of the shot, I don’t know if Wheeler ever got a clean look at the ball as it headed towards the back corner of the net.

This match was Wheeler’s first action since Marquette gave away a three goal lead against UWM in the match right before the start of conference action. It seems like a pretty quality performance by the redshirt senior, but we’ll have to wait and see if he keeps the spot in the starting eleven or turns it back over to sophomore Luis Barraza.

Up Next: Nothing but conference action remains for the Golden Eagles, and that starts back up again this Saturday. It’s an early start for Marquette, at least for a regular Saturday match, as they’ll host Georgetown at 1pm. The Hoyas started out the season ranked in the top 10 in the country, but they are just 3-7-0 overall and 1-2-0 in conference play after last Saturday’s 4-2 loss to #7 Butler.