The women's soccer team responded to its national recognition, earned after opening weekend wins over Illinois and Northwestern, with two more wins over the holiday weekend.

The victories felt more like sighs of relief, however, than cries of joy.

Junior forward Alison Loughrin's second half-goal gave Marquette (4-0-0) a gritty 1-0 victory at Wisconsin-Green Bay Sunday.

The larger sigh occurred Friday at Valley Fields when a winless but talented Drake squad had the Golden Eagles on the back foot for most of the game.

Call it fate. Call it luck. Call it karma. Whatever it was, it allowed sophomore forward Christy Zwolski to score both goals in Marquette's 2-1 overtime victory over luckless Drake (0-3-0), which simply squandered too many chances.

"We struggled a little more tonight than we did last week," said senior midfielder Julie Thompson. "We kinda fell apart in the second half. We were pretty fortunate to hold on to bring them to overtime."

In the fourth minute of overtime, junior forward Lauren Weber dummied junior forward Meghan Connelly's cross and let the ball roll past her. It fell at the feet of Zwolski. She hesitated. She aimed low. The Drake goalkeeper got her hands on it, but the ball trickled underneath her.

"It was a great dummy by Weber," Zwolski said. "I was kind of expecting it because we've been doing dummies all week, so it's kind of cool that it happened in a game. After that I was just in the right place at the right time."

It was cruel for Drake. Still, a win with a mediocre performance against a good team is not exactly a mark of shame.

"The mark of a good team is when you win games and maybe you don't play your best game of the year," said head coach Markus Roeders.

Drake controlled possession early, but Zwolski put Marquette ahead in the 25th minute. Weber played the ball behind the Drake defense, and Zwolski raced in to clip the ball over the onrushing goalkeeper.

Then cometh the onslaught.

In a sign of things to come, Drake's Andrea Schmitz broke behind the Marquette defense in the 28th minute before a good save from sophomore goalkeeper Laura Boyer kept out her near-post strike.

Schmitz's speed took her past the Marquette backline ten minutes later, but Thompson tracked back to intercept a dangerous cross.

The Drake senior forward was through on goal yet again in the 57th minute but blasted a shot over the net. The woeful miss failed to diminish Drake's spirits, for the overdue breakthrough came a minute later. Junior forward Danielle Oswald curled a 22-yard free kick into the top corner to tie the game.

The goal changed little in the way the rest of the half was played. Drake continued to miss chances. A determined Schmitz won a tackle against freshman defender Katie Kelly to ignite another breakaway, but Schmitz's effort struck the outside of the far post.

Drake's best chance to win the game occurred with a few minutes left in regulation. Boyer, though, made another crucial save when she stopped Melissa Nelson's close-range shot.

Zwolski's game-winning goal was her second of the season. It further solidified her spot in the starting lineup after she scored just one goal in 12 appearances last year.

Sunday night's game was marred by Green Bay's overzealous physical play that resulted in five yellow cards and a red card.

"At times it was ridiculous," Roeders said. "A lot of it was beyond the game of soccer."

Marquette controlled the game and finally scored in the 51st minute when Loughrin tucked home freshman midfielder Britni Benage's cross.

Boyer recorded her second shutout of the season and has allowed two goals in four matches.

This article was published in The Marquette Tribune on September 6, 2005.