Marquette Women’s Soccer Salvages A Draw

After three tries, YOUR Marquette Golden Eagles are finally on the board.

Thanks to a 51st minute penalty kick goal from Katrina Wetherell and a second overtime save by keeper Maddy Henry, Marquette left Valley Fields on Sunday afternoon with a 1-1 draw with Creighton. The result gives the Golden Eagles a record of 0-2-1 in Big East play and nudges them ever so slightly out of a tie for last place with Seton Hall, who has yet to record a point.

For a quick minute there, it looked like there weren’t going to be points in the forecast for Marquette. The Jays put up three shots in the first nine minutes of the match, with all three coming from Ansley Atkinson. First she missed high, then she was on target but saved by Henry, and then finally she cracked a shot into the top right right corner to put Creighton up 1-0.

That was with 8:23 showing on the clock, and it would be 18 more minutes before the Golden Eagles even attempted a shot. Abby Hess had the first try of the game for MU in the 27th minute, and let me tell you: waiting 27 minutes to get a shot off when you’ve lost five of your last six matches is generally speaking not a fun or good thing.

By the end of the half, Creighton had outshot Marquette 9-4 and Henry had to make four saves to keep the match at just a one goal margin. Again, not fun or good.

But for whatever reason, Marquette seemed rejuvenated, or perhaps just juvenated, in the second half. Kylie Sprecher had the first shot coming out after halftime, and in the 51st minute, the Golden Eagles had created enough activity in front of the Creighton net that the referee had seen enough to grant a penalty kick. I’m not sure exactly what for, and God bless them, but the Marquette Wire guys doing the streaming broadcast didn’t quite see what had caused it, either.

In any case, Wetherell calmly cracked in her attempt past CU’s Katie Sullivan, and we were all knotted at one goal each. MU’s attacking mindset continued as the half wore on, eventually outshooting the Jays 9-6 in the second half. Sullivan only made one save — on Sprecher’s first attempt of the half — and thus we went to extra time for a result.

Officially, Marquette was outshot in the two extra sessions, 3-1. However, Henry had to make a save on just one of those shots. That came from Taryn Jakubowski in the 104th minute. There would be just one more shot in the match, less than a minute later and from Jakubowski again. CU had two corner kicks come up empty, and that was that.

Up Next: With a point in hand, Marquette will look to try to build on that start. They’ll be in New York on Thursday night to face St. John’s in the front end of an East Coast swing. The Johnnies are just 1-2-0 in Big East play thus far after losing 2-0 to DePaul on Sunday, and just 4-8-0 overall.