Marquette Fights Their Way To A Draw With Villanova

Well, the good news is that Marquette women’s soccer picked up a draw with Villanova on Sunday afternoon after losing each of their last two matches by scores of 1-0. The point that the Golden Eagles picked up keeps them in the running for a spot in the conference tournament with three matches left to play.

The bad news is that Marquette had to rally to get the draw, with Josie Bieda pulling MU even in the 51st minute. The worse news is that Isabella Cook was red carded out of the match following Bieda’s goal after Cook started fighting with Villanova’s Maddie Fried after Fried dropped a shoulder into Cook’s back to.... I don’t even know what Fried thought she was going to accomplish. And so, Marquette will head into their next match, needing points to stay alive for the conference tournament, without one of their most valuable players because of the red card.

I’d love to show you Jackie Richards’ goal that put Villanova up 1-0 in the 38th minute, but Villanova hates us and did not tweet out a clip of it. Short version: The Wildcats tried to flip the field with a long pass about 22 yards out from the net, but it was to no one in particular and MU was unable to wrangle it into control. A touch from the Golden Eagles went to Richards, who turned and fired back to the far side of the net for her, back to the side that the ball was originally on before the flip. It’s a great shot for Richards to be clear, no knock on Mikki Easter for not being able to stop it.

Villanova went into the half up 1-0 and holding a 9-3 shots advantage, so it seemed that Marquette might be in quite a bit of trouble. Things were quiet for both sides to start the second half, but shortly after VU’s first shot after intermission, things went a little like this for Josie Bieda and Mia Haertle:

All due respect to Bieda, particularly for her work avoiding the two Villanova defenders to get the shot off, but the one-hopper shot that goes past Payton Woodward did not deserve the level of “Bieda FIIIIRRREESS” that the announcer gives it.

But that’s 1-1 for sure, and great news for the Golden Eagles. The red cards on Cook and Fried came about 90 seconds later, before either team could muster another shot. With both sides playing with 10 women, things were a little bit on the quiet side as perhaps both teams needed to figure out what was what with so few people on the field. Business picked up for the Wildcats in the final 20 minutes as Villanova outshot Marquette 9-1 in that stretch, but Easter needed to stop just one of them in order to keep the match level at one goal each.

Up Next: Can I interest you in a home game against a nationally ranked opponent? On Thursday, #22 Georgetown comes to Valley Fields, with first kick set for 7pm Central time. The Hoyas went to a 1-1 draw with Providence on Sunday to move their record to 8-1-7 on the year and 4-0-4 in the Big East. Georgetown has a one point advantage in the Big East standings over Xavier, but the Hoyas do have one extra match played right now.