Marquette Women’s Soccer Preview: at DePaul

UPDATE [11/1/19]: The soccer match between Marquette and DePaul was postponed due to the snowstorm that blew through the Milwaukee and Chicago area on Halloween. I have adjusted the date and time information below to reflect that the match will now be played on Friday, November 1st, but the DePaul scouting report has been unaltered.

As far as the Big East tournament seeding information goes, the other eight teams in the league all played their matches on Thursday as scheduled. Marquette can no longer finish fourth, but they will clinch a Big East tournament berth with a win or a draw against the Blue Demons.

I’m going to take you behind the scenes at AE here for a little bit.

I had planned on writing up a Big East women’s soccer tournament scenarios article, and through the top three teams in the league, things were going swimmingly. If win, then seed, blah blah blah. Pretty cut and dry stuff, for the most part.

Once I got to the tie for fourth place at 13 points, things started getting twisty, and that’s where Marquette comes into play. There are two teams tied at 13 points, and two more teams tied at 10 points. That takes us out to the top seven squads in the conference this season, which means at least one (hang on, I’ll explain) of those four teams is getting left out of the six team conference tournament. Explaining the possibility of the various possible ties at 13 points got very confusing to keep straight, and having to explain it four times from each team’s perspective made my head melt.

Thus, I gave up trying. If I can’t make it make sense to me, then you’re definitely not going to understand it when you read it.

The important part here is that Marquette is one of the teams at 10 points right now. If my math is right, there is a way for MU to end up as the #4 seed in the conference tournament and hosting a quarterfinal game on Sunday. What I know for certain is that the most important thing Marquette can do is win their regular season finale.

Why? Well, because not only are they tied for sixth, that means they’re tied for seventh and not in the tournament. A draw with DePaul puts Marquette in jeopardy. Creighton has nine points right now, and they can jump the Golden Eagles if things break in a particular direction.

Not only is a draw over in that particular direction, but so is a loss. In fact, a loss will guarantee that Marquette is out of the Big East tournament. Even if Providence loses and stays on 10 points and Creighton sticks on 9, that means that the Golden Eagles lose a tiebreaker to the Friars thanks to the head to head result.

So.

Marquette can get into the conference tournament after missing last year for the first time in program history. Missing for a second straight year would be very bad, so let’s all cross our fingers for a win, shall we?

Big East Match #9: at DePaul Blue Demons (7-7-3, 4-3-1 Big East)

Date: Friday, November 1, 2019
Time: 1pm Central
Location: Wish Field, Chicago, IL
Streaming: Big East Digital Network on the Big East’s YouTube channel
Live Stats: Sidearm Stats
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteWSOC

Marquette is 15-5-2 all time against DePaul. The last six meetings have not been favorable to either side, as they have split them 2-2-2. MU is 2-0-1 in the last three, and have held the Blue Demons without a goal in the last two contests.

DePaul comes in following a loss to Xavier in their most recent contest. Again, if my math is right, that 2-1 defeat put the Blue Demons at risk of missing the Big East tournament if they don’t win this match. It was incredibly poorly timed as losses go, as that was their follow up to a 1-0 overtime win over then-#14 Georgetown.

Fittingly, it was Morgan Turner that scored the golden goal against the Hoyas. She has eight goals to her credit this season, which leads the team. With her 16 points on those goals, she’s the only player with double-digit points on the year, but Turner has three teammates with three goals. Jackie Batliner isn’t one of them, but she does have a team-high five assists on the year.

I had to go over to the Big East’s website to figure out who plays goalie for DePaul, as their internal stat sheet inexplicably doesn’t mention goalkeeping stats in the slightest. Mollie Eriksson has started every match this year for the Blue Demons, and she’s letting in just under one goal per 90 minutes. She’s only stopping 73% of shots on goal, which should give the Golden Eagles enough of a chance to put it in if they get quality looks. That’s the real problem, as DePaul gives up fewer than 10 shots per game.