For 69 minutes, nothing went the Golden Eagles' way.

Marquette's offense had gone stagnant at a most inopportune time — the quarterfinals of the Big East Conference tournament versus Louisville.

The Golden Eagles found themselves trailing 0-1 with time winding down and knew that sooner or later, they had to catch a break.

After all, Marquette had been on the attack all afternoon, yet the team had uncharacteristically failed to capitalize on its scoring chances.

So when the ball rolled out of bounds off the Cardinals just beyond midfield in Louisville territory, freshman defender Allison McBride ran over to set up a quick throw-in and keep the possession moving upfield.

But that pesky ball just kept on rolling; it was teasing her.

"Everyone on our sideline was yelling for me to get the ball and throw it in," McBride said. "I had my back facing the action."

While McBride was busy chasing one ball, senior midfielder Lindsay Michuda had chosen the easier route and picked up another ball.

Michuda threw the ball to senior midfielder Julie Thompson, who fed it back to Michuda.

Moving up the field, Michuda passed the ball to sophomore forward Christy Zwolski, and at that point, the rest of the field caught on that the ball was actually in play.

Most of the players were so caught up in McBride's pursuit of the original ball that they had not noticed the subsequent action.

"I was looking at Alli, but then I saw the ball was already in play," said junior forward Meghan Connelly. "I thought to myself, 'I'm gonna get the closer (ball).'"

It's a good thing that the thought occurred to her.

Right about the time Zwolski played a through-ball to Connelly inside the Cardinals' box, McBride finally got a grasp on the original ball.

But as McBride turned around, charged up the sideline and prepared to throw her ball onto the field, something odd occurred to her.

"We already had the ball in the box," McBride said.

The freshman looked out onto the field just in time to see Connelly be tripped up from behind and to hear the referee's whistle blow.

"I went down, and I thought, 'If that's not a PK, I'm gonna be mad,'" Connelly said. "We were not losing this game."

To Connelly's relief, the whistle did signify a penalty kick, which was converted by Thompson.

With the game tied 1-1, momentum shifted the Golden Eagles' way, and for the remaining 21 minutes, everything went their way.

"The penalty changed the pace of the game," said senior defender Heather Goranson. "But we knew something was bound to happen."