Women's Soccer: Marquette 3, Seton Hall 0

How do you get the taste of a bad loss out of your mouth? If you're Marquette, it seems that you come home to Valley Fields and run roughshod over the touted defense of a struggling Seton Hall team.

Seton Hall's best opportunity to score came early in the match when a free kick bounced behind Marquette goalkeeper Amanda Engel, but Cali Pyzdrowski, starting in place of the injured Haley Fritzlen, sent the ball out.  Engel was then ready for the shot fired back by Seton Hall and made a diving save to keep the match scoreless.  Both teams stymied attempts by the other to get into scoring position and there were but four combined shots between them until the 21st minute.

It seemed that Illissa Blackshear had successfully saved a Morgan Proffitt header off a Jacie Jermier corner, but unfortunately for the Pirates keeper she sent the ball right back into Proffitt's head and the Golden Eagle didn't miss on her second chance to score her first goal of the season.  Marquette had found a chink in the Seton Hall defensive armor: the invigorated offense finished the first half with 8 corner kicks and 9 shots.  On the fourth corner, Alex Heffron sent the ball into the head of defender Erin Holland who found the back of the net for her first career goal giving Marquette a 2-0 edge going into halftime.

The Pirates either made no adjustments at halftime or the changes made things worse as the Golden Eagles dominated possession early in the second half.  Marquette abused the Pirates defense once more on a set piece: Blacksheer got a hand on a Mary Luba shot that would likely have gone wide on its own.  Luba took the corner, Holland passed the ball towards the net, and Darian Powell finished the job with her feet rather than her head to put Marquette up 3-0.

Even as their substitutes streamed onto the field, Marquette continued to control the match.  Seton Hall managed a scant 2 shots to Marquette's 12 in the second half: the last one came just as time expired and probably would not have counted even if it had not been hit directly into Sofie Schunk's open arms.  Engel and Schunk combined were credited with the team's fifth shutout of the season.

Highlights can be found over at MUTube thanks to the Big East Digital Network.

Up next: 12th ranked and second in the Big East standings DePaul on Sunday at 6 pm.  The last regular season match at Valley Fields will also be Senior Night.