Marquette Women’s Soccer Preview: vs Providence Friars

Homecoming weekend will be capped off with the Marquette Golden Eagles hosting the Providence Friars in women’s soccer. MU Homecoming has been pretty electric so far as we’ve been fortunate to see some pretty impressive performances on and off the court. The women’s volleyball team got a huge victory over #12 ranked Creighton in dominant fashion as they swept them 3-0 Thursday night. This win will have a lot of weight come tournament time. They followed that up with a 3-0 sweep of Providence on Friday evening. Later that night, we saw Coach Wojo ride onto the court for Madness on an ATV and then somersault off of it while it was still moving. There’s no better way to pump up the crowd than by nearly killing yourself. Both the women’s and men’s basketball teams showed us a sneak peak of what should be very exciting seasons for both teams. Men’s soccer got into the action a little bit on Saturday afternoon when they secured a draw against Providence.

Boy, there certainly a lot of Providence on the docket this weekend.

Now, it’s the women’s soccer team’s turn to step up and give Marquette a great ending to a fun action-packed Homecoming weekend. The Golden Eagles have had back-to-back shutouts beating St. John’s and DePaul by scores of 1-0 and 2-0. We have seen the offense pull it together lately, in large part due to the return to health of Carrie Madden, and finish off their opportunities they have created for themselves. Another thing going MU’s way is their history of dominance against Providence. The Golden Eagles are 11-0-2 against the Friars and have outscored them 32-2. You read that right, they have only allowed two goals in 13 games. What’s more is that Marquette hasn’t allowed a goal against Providence since October 10, 2010. I’m not sure if there’s another team the Golden Eagles have had this much success against in the rest of the Big East. (Editor’s Note: Well, we used to be able to say “Villanova” here, but, well, y’know.) Their dominant history doesn’t mean that this game is going to be a cake walk. In fact, I think this game is going to be a lot closer because of Providence’s success this season.

Big East Match #5: vs Providence Friars (7-6-0, 2-2-0 Big East)

Date: Sunday, October 8, 2017
Time: 1pm Central
Location: Valley Fields
Streaming: GoMarquette.com
Stats: GameTracker
Special Promotions: The first 200 fans will receive a t-shirt celebrating MU Women’s Soccer 25 year history. The promotions page says students can win men’s basketball season tickets or a VIP package for Madness, but somehow I don’t think that’s 100% accurate.
Twitter Updates: @MUWomensSoccer

The Providence Friars most recently beat St. John’s 2-1 in comeback fashion. They came in to Big East play with a four game win streak and actually won five straight before dropping their second Big East game to Xavier. They played Butler very well last weekend taking them to double overtime before Butler’s Caitlyn Disarcina scored the game winner in the 109th minute to give the Bulldogs the 2-1 win. The Friars clearly employed a better strategy against Butler than Marquette did considering MU fell 3-0 to the Bulldogs. So far, the Friars have been stingy in Big East play with every game being decided by just one goal. They are tied with Marquette in both record and points going 2-2 with six points. This game will be a pivotal moment for the winning team because they’ll be able to distance themselves from the lower half of the table and stay on the heels of Georgetown, Xavier, and Butler.

The Friars don’t have one player that necessarily stands out and have used an attack by committee approach throughout the season. 13 different players have scored a goal for Providence with no one scoring more than two on the year. It will be interesting to see how Marquette deals with this defensively since the last two games they’ve only had to focus on one or two key players. If there was one player to pick out of the myriad of goal scorers it would be Casey Eatsey whose recorded four shots (three on target) and one goal in the last two games. She is one of four Providence players with two goals this year.

I see two things going Marquette’s way, besides the success they’ve had against the Friars in the past. One, is that Providence has yet to play a ranked opponent. Two, they are 1-4 away from home. Marquette’s coming into this game with more big game experience and some serious home-field advantage. This bodes well for a Marquette team that has found their stride again recently and has their star players like Carrie Madden and Kylie Sprecher playing very well. It’s just a matter of continuing to play like they have in the last two games: get the early lead, play strong defense, and look to tack on insurance goals if the opportunities arise. Let me quickly re-emphasize that the Golden Eagles have not allowed Providence to score on them in 693:42 minutes of action. That’s insane. With Maddy Henry in net, I like Marquette’s odds to keep that shutout streak alive.