The team will face No. 21 USC Friday and Oakland Sunday and will come back to Wisconsin to square off against in-state rival Wisconsin Badgers Tuesday, Sept. 9, in Madison.

“We’re not scared,” Roeders said of the schedule. “We need these type of games.”

The Golden Eagles will be challenged by three different styles of play, with USC playing in a west coast style, Oakland playing with nine foreign players — many from Europe — and Wisconsin, which possesses speed along with good defense.

Southern California is coming off a one-and-one weekend, losing, 4-3, to Florida on Aug. 31 and a beating No. 15 Florida State, 2-1, Aug. 29.

“When you’ve done this for a while, you can distinguish between top 10 nationally ranked and other nationally ranked teams,” Roeders said. “Their style will pose threats against our team; they are quite quick, a possession-type team.

“I don’t think we’ll surprise them and they won’t surprise us. They’re not going to blow us away.”

Oakland defeated Marquette last season, 2-0, in the Milwaukee Cup and Roeders said being familiar with the team will be an advanage.

“They are similar to the past year,” he said. “They have a different understanding of the game. They are very patient and more mature for their age. They try to catch you on a counter-attack.”

Marquette split its matches with Wisconsin last season, beating the Badgers, 1-0, in the regular season but losing, 3-2, in the first round of the NCAA Women’s Soccer Tournament. The Badgers beat St. Mary’s, 3-1, at the Cal invitation last weekend, where they also lost to No. 17 California, 2-0. The Badgers are returning 11 juniors and seniors from last season.

In order to score in the next three games, Roeders said his team needs to be on the same page defensively and be able to pass the ball to where the team can find a player in the 18-yard box so she can score.

Roeders has also been alternating the roster over the past three games and said he plans to continue doing so.

“One of our luxuries is our depth of our team,” he said. “We don’t just have 11 starters. Some will start this game, some won’t start the next. It depends on who’s feeling well, who’s looking good and what the matchup’s are.”

Leading Marquette is senior midfielder Carolyn Klopp who has scored Marquette’s only goal of the season against Vanderbilt. Junior goalie Katie Bissen has allowed only one goal and has had seven saves in the teams first two games.