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Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

Lyon setting records in historic senior campaign

Photo by Valeria Cardenas/valeria.cardenas@marquette.edu
Photo by Valeria Cardenas/[email protected]

Marquette’s 2014-15 season has already been a historic one, largely due to the play of redshirt senior goalkeeper Charlie Lyon.

Lyon backstopped the Golden Eagles in their program record of 804 minutes of shutout soccer this season during a seven game winning streak. Lyon tied Jim Welsh’s program record Oct. 11 for the most career shutouts with his 28th. He started and played in every minute of every match this season, a huge factor in Marquette being fourth in the NCAA in goals against average going into this week.

If that is not enough to impress, Lyon was also named one of ten candidates for the Senior CLASS Award, given to the player who best exemplifies excellence in character, their community, the classroom and in their sport.

Overall, it has been a pretty fun ride for Lyon in his final collegiate season.

The shutout streak is arguably the story of the season, as Lyon and the defense impressed night in and night out. Although it wasn’t necessarily a goal the group set out to accomplish at the beginning of the season, Lyon feels that the accomplishment helped bring the unit together.

“We know what we need to do to get it done,” Lyon said. “Because we’ve had that success in the past we know what to do to keep getting (shutouts).”

One of the top goalkeepers in the 50-year history of Marquette soccer, Lyon is known to make some magnificent saves. Like many young keepers, he models his game after his counterparts at the highest level, names like Tim Howard, Manuel Neuer and Iker Casillas. He likes taking qualities of different keepers to improve his game.

Some goalkeepers like to make saves early to make sure they are on their game for the rest of the match. Others prefer to simply not face shots at all. Not surprisingly, based on Marquette’s defensive system, Lyon falls into the latter category.

“Any day that you don’t get tested, that’s a good day,” Lyon said with a laugh. “Goalkeepers are the last resort. You have someone that’s capable of making the save and when they do it that’s great, but you hope to not have that opportunity to come up again.”

With it being his final year at Marquette, Lyon has started thinking about his life after college.

“I don’t have a firm grasp on exactly what I want to do,” Lyon said. “I’ll look and see what opportunities I have if there’s something through soccer. If not, I’m trying to figure out what I want to do with my biomedical science degree.”

One option for Lyon post-graduation may be continuing to play at a high level in the United States. An article on MLS.com earlier this month listed Lyon as one of the home grown players who will benefit from the U.S. Soccer’s newly established developmental programs. Lyon said he has been thinking about the opportunity to play at the highest level in the US since he was a child.

Lyon has already had a taste of the MLS as a part of the Chicago Fire program, starting with playing in the Chicago Fire Academy in high school. This summer, he was able to train with the Fire’s first team, which gave him a glimpse of the day-to-day life of an MLS player.

Marquette is working on launching a campaign for Lyon’s Senior CLASS Award bid. It’s just the latest in a series of awards Lyon has been chosen for that honor academics as well as athletics. He was named the Big East Men’s Scholar Athlete of the Year last season and has made the Big East All-Academic team three times.  Lyon sees this latest nomination as a great way to give back to the university before his departure.

“I’m glad that the school is being recognized,” Lyon explained. “I’m so grateful for the opportunity that I’ve had here … I’m glad the school can be on the national stage in that (positive) light.”

Fans can vote daily for Lyon online on the award’s website.

Lyon has many goals he’d like to accomplish during the second half of the season. He’d like to continue shutting out opponents, make the Big East tournament, be a part of Marquette’s second straight Big East Championship and help the team’s ever-looming goal of another NCAA tournament bid a reality.

Of course, he said he would love to hold the career shutout record for himself soon too.

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