And last, but certainly not least… the Golden Eagles of Marquette.

Due to extremely high winds, the NCAA tournament match between the Golden Eagles and cross-town rival Wisconsin-Milwaukee was postponed six hours, making it the final game of the second round.

While 15 teams already knew they were "Sweet" by Sunday night's kickoff at Valley Fields, the 16th squad to advance to the second weekend of NCAA tournament play had arguably the sweetest moment of them all.

Junior forward Meghan Connelly's teardrop into the UWM goal with 20 seconds remaining in regulation sent the women's soccer team to its first Sweet 16 in school history.

"This means a lot for Marquette University," said head coach Markus Roeders. "There are so many people involved who should feel gratification for what we've done."

Tops on that list would be the players, who in their first season in the Big East Conference have exceeded the expectations of everyone but themselves.

"At the beginning of the year, we were the underdogs," said senior defender Heather Goranson. "It's great to be in that position again."

The fact that the Golden Eagles are in a position to be in a position means their season is still alive and well, a certainty that was not so assured until the final seconds of Sunday night's match.

Watching the chaos surrounding the UWM box from the comfort of her own, sophomore goalkeeper Laura Boyer was simultaneously worried and confident.

"I was just thinking, 'Please God,'" Boyer said. "But I knew we had so many girls on our team (in the UWM box) that would fight for it. It was a total team effort."

Now, that team will have a chance to fight for it again this Saturday night versus the UCLA Bruins.

UCLA is the number one seed in Marquette's quadrant of the NCAA bracket, and one ESPN women's college soccer analyst stated on the station's tournament selection show Nov. 7 that the Bruins had the easiest road to the College Cup.

Tell that to the Golden Eagles.

"We took (the analyst's statement) to heart. It's time to prove that we're not some team to be overlooked," Boyer said. "At the same time, it's nice to be overlooked."

For now though, no one close to the women's soccer team wants to overlook the sentiment of Sunday night's victory.

"We've made history, and nobody's going to take it away from us," Roeders said. "It's one of those feelings that you'd just like to bottle up."

Despite the emotional high, the beauty in the Golden Eagles' second round win is that they won't get a chance to fully savor it until their season comes to an end.

"I can't believe what just happened," said junior midfielder Michelle Pitzl. "This means everything to us, but we're not settled yet."