Marquette Women’s Soccer Takes Down DePaul

The Marquette Golden Eagles defeated the DePaul Blue Demons 2-0 yesterday afternoon to surpass them in the Big East standings. MU now finds itself in a 3-way tie for 4th with Providence and Villanova at six points.

The Golden Eagles benefited from Creighton somehow finding a way to draw against #12 Georgetown in D.C as well as Butler and Xavier playing to a scoreless draw in Indianapolis. All three of those teams are ahead of MU in the standings. Now, the Golden Eagles are just two points back of Butler and four back of Xavier and Georgetown who are tied at the top with 10 points.

Carrie Madden was the hero in this game netting the brace with goals in the 61st and 65th minutes. Madden’s first goal was a case of being in the right place at the right time as an Eli Beard cross was re-directed off the head of Kylie Sprecher and landed at Madden’s feet. She then hit the ball over DePaul goalkeeper Lauren Frasca to put MU up 1-0. It didn’t take long for MU to get their second as Madden struck again four minutes later. Beard and Sprecher were both involved again as Beard took the corner kick, Sprecher headed it back in the mix after Frasca deflected it, and Madden headed the ball home. We haven’t heard Madden’s name in a while because she’s been recovering from injury and slowly finding her way back into the game. In her 70 minutes on the field on Thursday afternoon, she needed just four to get the two decisive goals. These goals were her first since the 3-0 victory against Drake on August 25.

Madden’s two goals give her four on the season and move her up to no. 2 on the team in points with 11. She’s right behind Darian Powell’s team leading 12 points. Sprecher also had a huge performance with a career best two assists in the game and now has five on the season. She’s in third on the team in points with nine. It was just a matter of time before Madden found the net again this season, and she came up big against DePaul. We saw the Golden Eagles play like they did earlier in the season with the powerful attack of the Madden, Powell, and Sprecher trio. I mentioned Madden’s two goals off assists from Sprecher but Powell did her fair share with two shots in the match. She also should have earned a penalty in the 75th minute after being taken down in the box which would have given Marquette a chance for their third goal.

Marquette goalkeeper Maddy Henry should also be commended for making three first half saves to keep DePaul scoreless. She had five total saves and recorded her sixth clean sheet of the year which is good enough for second in the Big East. I wouldn’t be surprised to see her, as well as Madden, on the Big East honor roll next week.

The Golden Eagles have responded in the best way possible to their 0-2 start to Big East play by winning two straight games. Both games were tight but the Golden Eagles came out victorious because they got back to playing their brand of soccer. This means out shooting opponents and not giving them good looks at goal. I said in my preview that if they held DePaul under 10 shots they would have a good chance to win and they did just that. They out shot the Blue Demons 11-9 in the match.

Here’s what Carrie Madden and Head Coach Markus Roeders had to say after the big win:

Up Next: The Golden Eagles will return to Valley Fields and play Providence Sunday afternoon. The Friars are 7-6 and 2-2 in the Big East. This is a very important game for MU because Providence is in a three-way tie for fourth with the Golden Eagles right now with six points.