Marquette Women’s Soccer Picked Fourth In Big East Midwest Division

With the women’s college soccer season about to get underway this week, the Big East announced the results of the preseason poll and awards voting on Monday. We’re here to talk about Marquette related things, and with a note to point out that the league has gone to a regional division format for this spring season, I can tell you that the Golden Eagles are picked to finish fourth in the Midwest Division this season.

It’s a five team division, so the good news is that Marquette is not picked to finish last this season, at least not when you combine all the votes together. Xavier is the favorite in the division after earning all four available first place votes and 16 points, since coaches can’t vote for their own team or players. DePaul got the remaining first place vote from Xavier head coach Nate Lie and ended up with second place and 12 points. Butler is third at 11 points, Marquette snagged six points, then Creighton is fifth and last with five points.

Five points for the Jays indicates that they did not get four last place votes. That would have given them four points. I’m not quite sure how Marquette got to six points, as four third place votes would have been eight points, but Creighton and Marquette going 3-1 in some fashion would have meant seven points for the Golden Eagles. Anyway, it’s probably not worth it to spend too much time parsing all of this.

Georgetown is the favorite over in the East Division, picking up all five available first place votes. They’re followed along in order by Villanova, Providence (they got the other first place vote), Connecticut, St. John’s, and Seton Hall.

The more important thing to discuss is that head coach Frank Pelaez will go into his first season in charge of Marquette women’s soccer without a preseason all-Big East honoree. Eight of the 11 teams in the league have at least one rep on the 12 woman squad. Eight of the 12 women are in Marquette’s division, including Preseason Goalkeeper of the Year Stephanie Rodriguez from Butler. The Golden Eagles went 6-11-1 in 2019 under long time head coach Markus Roeders, and while there are a number of women on the MU roster returning from that squad, you can see why maaaaybe the league’s coaches aren’t all that impressed by what the Golden Eagles are putting on the field.

We’ll wrap up here with the rundown of the individual honors in the conference along with the all-Big East team. Marquette gets their season started on Friday night when they host Chicago State at Valley Fields. First kick is set for 7pm Central time, and streaming will be available via GoMarquette.com.

If you want to check out the Big East’s entire press release on the preseason polls, you can find it right here.

Preseason Offensive Player of the Year

Zsani Kajan, St. John’s, R-Sr., F

Preseason Defensive Player of the Year

Jenna Royson, Georgetown, Jr., D

Preseason Goalkeeper of the Year

Stephanie Rodriguez, Butler, R-Jr., GK

Preseason All-Big East Team

Stephanie Rodriguez, Butler, R-Jr., GK
Anja Savich, Butler, Jr., F
Katie Soderstrom, Butler, Jr., F
Skylar Heinrich, Creighton, So., F
Kristin Boos, DePaul, So., F
Morgan Turner, DePaul, Sr., F
Jenna Royson, Georgetown, Jr., D
Hannah McNulty, Providence, Sr., F
Zsani Kajan, St. John’s, R-Sr., F
Brice McInroy, Villanova, Jr., M
Molly McLaughlin, Xavier, Jr., M
Brooke Sroka, Xavier, Jr., F