Twombly Tops Villanova To Celebrate Marquette’s 30th Anniversary

Marquette women’s soccer really needed a win. They hadn’t picked one up since downing Butler back on September 25th, which means they were 0-3-1 in their last four contests. That draw was in their most recent match, so at least they had stopped their losing streak. It’s the weekend that MU is celebrating their 30th anniversary of the program existing, so coming away with a draw wouldn’t reaaaally be quite enough to make it festive.

Enter Elsi Twombly in the 15th minute against Villanova on Sunday afternoon at Valley Fields.

That play, off the Mia Haertle corner kick, would end up being the only offense that the Golden Eagles would need in their 1-0 victory. Marquette is now 7-6-2 on the season and 3-3-1 in Big East play. The three points from the win puts them, for the moment into sixth place in the Big East. That’s critically important, since only the top six team qualify for the conference tournament.

It wasn’t just Twombly’s goal that won the day for the Golden Eagles, although that was the difference on the scoreboard. Marquette also posted a 19-5 advantage in shots on the afternoon. Most of that was accumulated in the second half as the Golden Eagles did not sit back and park the bus to get their win. After intermission, MU outshot the visiting Wildcats 13-3 and force VU keeper Megan McClay to make six of her nine saves on the day just to keep the margin at one goal.

Meanwhile, down on the other end, Chloe Olson didn’t have a lot to do since she only faced five shots all day. Merely one of the five was even on frame, so Olson had to stay on her toes all afternoon to stop Makayla Stadler in the 79th minute to earn her second shutout of the season and drop her goals-against average to 1.24 on the year.

Up Next: Beyond the “it would be neat if the alumni got to see a win” part of Sunday’s activity, picking up the W was pretty critical relative to what’s up next. On Thursday, Marquette will be out in our nation’s capital for an afternoon date with Georgetown. The Hoyas are 7-0-1 in Big East play this season and they’ve yet to allow a goal in conference play. That’s a steep hill to climb for the Golden Eagles, and jaunting out to Belson Stadium to face third place St. John’s next week Sunday won’t be a picnic either.