Marquette Rallies To Down Butler

For a moment, nay, a few moments in Indianapolis on Sunday afternoon, things were not looking well for Marquette women’s soccer. That’s the kind of thing you think when your squad is down 1-0 in the sixth minute and getting outshot 3-0 in the 27th minute.

BUT THINGS TURNED AROUND.

Your final, after the full 90 minutes had wound off the clock: Marquette 4, Butler 1! The Golden Eagles are now 6-3-1 on the year but more importantly 2-0-0 in Big East play. That has them in a tie atop the Big East standings with two other squads with six points, and we can’t ignore the two teams that are still undefeated even though they’ve only played one match.

FIRST PLACE IS STILL FIRST PLACE.

The Butler goal was not a great moment for Marquette. The Bulldogs took control of a Chloe Olson goal kick, chipped up a through ball to Talia Sommer, and she waited until the absolute last second to chip the ball herself up and over Olson for the 1-0 lead before five and a half minutes were gone.

Not the most ideal start, but do you know what is pretty neat for your first shot of the match, even if it came in the 28th minute? THIS ELSI TWOMBLY GOAL!

Credit Kate Gibson and Katie Koker with the helpers on that one as Twombly got just the right angle and not quite enough defensive work in the air to scoot that header past BU keeper Anna Pierce.

Butler would not shoot again in the first half. Marquette? They shot a few more times. Pierce had to make two saves about 75 seconds apart to keep the match tied at one, but eventually Caroline Cline’s first goal of her collegiate career found the back of the net in the 41st minute:

All due respect for Cline here because she’s the one who put that on frame and made things happen, but we have to at least acknowledge the Butler defender hilariously misplaying that ball by jumping to head it instead of letting it come down to her. Not much that Pierce could have done differently there, as you can see here there trying to constantly hedge her bets on where that ball might go next. Cline just happened to put it somewhere that Pierce couldn’t do anything about.

That made it 2-1 at the intermission, and Elizabeth Bueckers apparently decided in the locker room that a one goal margin was not good enough for her and the Golden Eagles. Just 22 seconds into the second half, Bueckers made good on a pass from Twombly to make it 3-1.

Is it just me or are the goals in this match absolutely skin of your teeth bonkers? Two of the three hit the crossbar, and all three Marquette goals came on headers which means wild angles that the keepers are always going to struggle with when they come flying in.

At this point, Butler hadn’t attempted an official shot in just a shade over 22 minutes, but they made up for it over the next six minutes. Four shots for the Bulldogs in that stretch, with one from Katie Soderstrom clanking off the crossbar and up and over on a free kick.

Less than a minute later, Marquette had the ball deep on the other end, and Kate Gibson converted off of play from Molly Keiper and Bonnie Lacey to make it four straight unanswered goals for the Golden Eagles:

Continuing the wild bunch of goals for the Golden Eagles, huh? You almost start feeling bad for Pierce to get caught four times like that, all in the first 53 minutes, in one game.

Butler controlled the rest of the match in terms of the offensive attack. They outshot Marquette 7-0 over the final 33 minutes, and five of those came in the 15 minutes following MU’s fourth goal of the match. But some of that has to be attributed to the Golden Eagles understanding that they had a three goal lead with just over half an hour to go and focusing on preserving their lead. Butler had two shots officially right around the 85 minute mark, but the Golden Eagles’ defense kept sticking a leg or a back in the way to stop them from getting anywhere near Olson and her net. By the end of the game, it was 15-7 favoring Butler in shots, but MU put six of those seven shots on frame against just five for the Bulldogs.

Gibson’s goal and two assists drew her into a tie for the team lead in points with Isabella Cook. Both women have chipped in eight points to Marquette’s team total of 56 on the season. With Lacey and Koker getting assists in this one, 16 different Golden Eagles have at least one point through 10 matches in 2022.

How about some highlights, courtesy of FloFC and GoMarquette.com?

Up Next: Marquette will return to action as well as return to Valley Fields on Thursday night for their next match. It will be the first of two straight contests at home for the Golden Eagles when they welcome Creighton to the Valley for a 7pm Central time start. The Bluejays are currently 4-2-4 on the year but 0-2-0 in Big East play after falling 2-1 to UConn and 4-0 at Georgetown in their first two league contests.