Not once, but twice following Wednesday's match, Louisville men's soccer head coach Tony Colavecchia approached his counterpart at Marquette and told him the Golden Eagles were the best team they'd played all this year.

As flattering as that may have been, it came as little consolation to Steve Adlard because his team played 90 minutes of regulation and two 10-minute overtimes but only managed a 2-2 tie against their Conference USA rival at Valley Fields.

One of the reasons Adlard was unhappy with the outcome was that it didn't help the Golden Eagles assure themselves one of the eight spots at the Conference USA Tournament in Louisville, which will take place Nov. 11-14.

"I'm not comfortable; I think we have to scrounge," Adlard said. "You have to get at least four wins and a tie. You've got to do that and we've got six games left. We've got to win four of six. We'd like to win five of six."

What makes it even more challenging is five of the six remaining conference games will be played away from Valley Fields.

Marquette certainly had chances to pick up the win, thanks in large part to the Golden Eagles' ability to cross the ball and involve their outside midfielders in the attack.

"They attack down the flanks, which is a very hard thing to defend," Colavecchia said. "Most teams don't attack down the flanks, most teams play through the midfield … tonight they must have had 30 crosses."

Unfortunately for Marquette, the player on the receiving end of the cross would either send the ball sailing over the cross bar or couldn't beat Louisville freshman goalkeeper Charles Edwards.

The Golden Eagles countered in net with freshmen Steven Grow and Andy Kroll.

Kroll, who had been out since mildly separating his shoulder in a 2-0 loss against Oakland on Sept. 10, replaced Grow at the start of the second half with the score knotted up 0-0.

Instead of giving him a balloon or a bouquet of flowers, the Cardinals welcomed him back with two great goals.

The first one came six minutes and 21 seconds into the half when junior midfielder Jelani Grant cleared the ball to freshman forward David Guzman. Guzman cut inside on two Marquette defenders and proceeded to rifle a shot past Kroll into the far corner.

"The situation was so bad once the guy cut inside of them, it was over," Adlard said.

Marquette countered nine minutes later when Danny Mullin directed Blair Kohlmeyer's corner kick off the near post and in.

Louisville answered at the 68:52 mark when freshman midfielder Anthony Celebre pounced on a ball at the top of the box that Marquette couldn't clear and beat Kroll to put the Cardinals up 2-1.

Louisville held onto the lead for eight minutes before the Golden Eagles answered a second time.

Sophomore defender Nathan Sabich started the play by threading the ball through the defense to sophomore midfielder Pat Knoelke near the left touchline. Knoelke than crossed it to Lee in front of the net who tipped the ball past Edwards for his fifth goal of the season.

"The one thing that I was impressed with tonight is (they) were behind twice in the game and kept picking (it) off," said Colavecchia.

The road swing begins Saturday when Marquette (2-5-1, 0-2-1) travels to Memphis (6-2-0, 2-0-0) in search of an elusive first conference win.