Marquette Women’s Soccer Downed By Georgetown

The Marquette Golden Eagles fell 3-0 to the Georgetown Hoyas Thursday afternoon. It was a bad time to run into the Hoyas after they had lost their first Big East game of the season against Providence last weekend. The Hoyas stormed out of the gates controlling the possession and out-shooting the Golden Eagles 10-1 in the first half. It was difficult to watch as MU didn’t seem to ever cross into the Hoyas’ end of the field. The times they were able to string some passes in the attack, it was quickly taken away by Georgetown.

After withstanding a lot of pressure in the opening quarter-hour, the MU defense was left watching as Georgetown senior Taylor Pak fired a bullet from just outside the box that hit side netting despite Maddy Henry’s great diving effort. Later, in the 31st minute, sophomore midfielder Paula Germino-Watnick found herself with a little space inside the box and placed her left-footed shot beautifully into the upper 90. Again, no chance for Henry to make the save as the shot had great power and great placement. Watnick was definitely the player of the game as she gave the Golden Eagle defense a headache with her talented footwork on the ball. She was able to beat MU defenders constantly and even won a penalty after being tripped up in the 82nd minute, although that shot was thankfully missed by Rachel Corboz. Amanda Carolan capped off the scoring for the Hoyas after a nice low cross from Jenna Menta in the 84th minute. She was easily able to slip her right-footed shot by Henry to the left side of the goal.

Maddy Henry did her best to keep the Golden Eagles in the game with eight saves. She had no chance to stop any of the three Hoya goals as they were all amazing strikes. The Golden Eagles were lucky that the Hoyas didn’t run up the score even more considering they had a lot of clear chances in front of net. I already mentioned the uncharacteristic penalty miss by Corboz from the penalty spot. Maybe she felt sorry because of how badly they were outplaying the Golden Eagles. She’s typically clinical in front of goal with five this season. Caitlin Farrell missed a wide open net (reminiscent of the Tori Doss miss last weekend) after the ball found her right inside the 5-yard box. She put way too much power on the shot that went flying over the net. I only bring up Georgtown’s missed opportunities to point out how fortunate Marquette was not to lose this by four or five goals.

The best chance for the Golden Eagles came when Carrie Madden did a great job of pressing Georgetown goaltender Arielle Schechtman after a long ball was played over the top. Schechtman misread it a little bit and precariously waited for it to come into the box so she could pick it up. Before she could, Madden sprinted forward and slide tackled the ball away from Schechtman. The ball squirted towards the net but unfortunately Schechtman beat Madden to the ball as she dove to secure it. That was the Golden Eagles’ best and only opportunity to get back into the game. They were ultimately out shot 22-3 by the Hoyas.

Here’s what head coach Markus Roeders had to say after the tough loss:

It wasn’t all bad for the Golden Eagles as they improved their play in the second half and had more offensive build-up. It’s just too bad they played Georgetown after the Hoyas’ first Big East loss because they had everything going for them in this game. The results from elsewhere in the Big East were just about what was expected. Butler beat Creighton 3-0, Xavier beat Seton Hall 2-1, and St. John’s beat Villanova 2-1. The St. John’s win puts them in a tie for 5th place with Marquette at nine points. The one result that did favor the Golden Eagles was Providence’s scoreless draw against DePaul. MU now sits four points back of the Friars with just two games left.

The top 6 teams from the top are Georgetown (16 points), Butler (15 points), Xavier (14 points), Providence (13 points), Marquette (9 points), and St. John’s (9 points) with two matches left to be played for each team. The first four teams have separated themselves from the rest but it will be interesting to see their where they finish because the difference between #1 and #4 is just three points. The focus is obviously on the Golden Eagles who are holding on to the final spot in the Big East tournament. What are their chances of making it in? Pretty good I’d say since they will close out the regular season playing against the two bottom-dwellers in the Big East. I would love to say that it’s an easy six points but with some of the losses MU has had this year I don’t want to speak too soon.

Up Next: The Golden Eagles will welcome Creighton to Valley Fields on Sunday. The Blue Jays are in 9th place in the Big East with a 3-10-3 record and 1-4-2 in the Big East. MU will close the year the following Thursday at last place Seton Hall who has not won a game all year (0-10-5, 0-4-3 Big East).