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Marquette scored the first seven goals of the second half, including three from Julianna Shearer, as the Golden Eagles rallied to defeat Temple, 12-10, on Saturday afternoon.
The win moves Marquette to 2-2 in Big East action this season, marking the first time in three seasons as a member of the league that the Golden Eagles have won more than one game in a single season. The win also puts MU in the driver's seat when it comes to securing one of the four Big East tournament slots, as they broke a tie for fourth with the Owls.
Shearer's second goal came with 20:43 remaining and knotted the game at eight each. That marker gave her 28 on the season and tied her with Hayley Baas for the most goals in a single season. Shearer would find the back of the net again, striking 31 seconds after a Grace Gabriel goal to make her the first MU player to ever record 29 goals in a season. All told, Marquette has recorded three of the 10 best goal scoring seasons in program history this season, with Allison Lane getting to 26 already and Baas breaking through to an even 20.
Things started out well for Marquette against the Owls, scoring three goals, including two from Riley Hill, in the first seven minutes. Then the game turned towards Temple, who would finish the first 30 minutes with a 19-8 shot advantage. Rachel Schwaab kicked off a 7-1 run for the Owls that made it a 7-4 game with 4:11 left in the half. Twice in that run, Temple scored two goals less than 30 seconds apart. Both teams would tack on a goal in the final minutes of the half, first Lane for Marquette, then Morgan Glassford's 18th of the season for the Owls with 68 seconds left til the break.
Shearer broke the ice on the second half, Lane tacked on 33 seconds later, and MU started asserting control. The Golden Eagles would only have a 12-11 advantage on shots in the second half, but they were peppering TU's Jaqi Kakalecik, and she was uncharacteristically bad in the second half. She came in with the best goals-against average in the Big East and the third best in the country, as well as the 2nd best save percentage in the league, but she only made two second half saves as Marquette rolled past the Owls.
Marquette got their final goal of the game from Lane with 5:34 remaining, and with a 12-8 lead at that point, they just had to burn some clock. Things got a little dicey with Temple getting goals from Avery Longstaff and then Schwaab, but they took more than two minutes between the pair of strikes. Temple would end up with possession for the final two minutes of the game, but they couldn't get a shot on goal in four tries. Finally Molly O'Brien forced a turnover and MU was able to secure the victory.
It wasn't a good day to be a goaltender in this game as they combined to allow 22 goals on just 34 shots on goal. Sarah Priem came away with the advantage on Kakalecik, winning the saves battle 7-5. Marquette's defense also took advantage of Temple, causing 15 of their 21 turnovers. Marquette was much cleaner with possession, turning it over just 15 times with 11 of them being credited to TU as caused turnovers.
Marquette is now 5-9 on the year, matching their best win total in program history. They finished 5-12 each of the past two years, and just need one win in their final three games to mark down 2016 as the best season in program history.
How about some highlights, courtesy of GoMarquette.com? What's the best part of the video: the winning goals by Marquette or the sweet as hell baby blue kits?
Up Next: Marquette has three games remaining before the Big East tournament, and all three have them in position to clinch one of the four spots. Two of their final three games are home contests against teams currently below them in the standings, with the first of those coming up this Wednesday afternoon against Vanderbilt. The Commodores (5-9, 1-4 Big East) have lost seven of their last eight games, with the only win coming against last place and winless in the Big East Cincinnati.