Marquette Women’s Soccer Suffers Exhibition Loss To Wisconsin

Jamie Kutey got things off to a smashing start for Marquette women’s soccer on Thursday night in Madison, but Wisconsin responded in force with three goals before halftime on their way to a 4-1 exhibition victory. As usual, it is Marquette’s only scheduled exhibition match, leaving head coach Markus Roeders more than a few things to consider between now and the 2017 opener against #2 Stanford.

After playing just 15 minutes in the entire 2016 season, Kutey scored MU’s lone goal of the match just two minutes in, pushing home a feed from Eli Beard. Marquette’s good fortune was short-lived, however, as the Badgers scored on a 1v1 in the fifth minute, on a penalty kick in the 14th minute, and a bending launch in the 18th minute. Grace Bahr tacked on an insurance goal for Wisconsin early in the second half to wrap up the scoring in the match.

It will be interesting to see how Marquette’s lineup shifts between now and next Friday. Roeders put out a forward and midfield set to start the match that was to be expected based on who was returning, but sophomore Emily Hess came off the bench on the back line after starting 18 of MU’s 22 matches a year ago. There were going to be changes on the back line to be certain with the departures of Cali Pyzdrowski and Erin Holland, but Madison Dunker was joined by redshirt freshman Mary Kate Simon and redshirt sophomore Bri Jaeger. That pair has 18 collegiate minutes between them, and all 18 are from Jaeger back in 2015. Was this an experiment from Roeders to see what he has in live game action, or does he think that this 11 is the one that gives his team the best chance to win? We’ll have to wait and see.

Here’s some postgame comments from both Kutey and Roeders.

First kick against the #2 ranked Cardinal at Valley Fields is set for 7:30pm Central on Friday, August 18th.