Marquette will be moving all varsity sports from Conference USA to the Big East athletic conference next school year. To commemorate Marquette's 10th and final year in C-USA, the Tribune is running a series taking a look at each varsity sport. The series kicks off with a look at women's soccer.

When Markus Roeders and Frank Pelaez took over in June 1996, the women's soccer team had already gone through two coaches since its inaugural 1993 season.

A combined 21-28-6 record in three years without a winning season was the standard that the tall German head coach and stubby Columbian assistant, respectively, sought to change.

Four years later, all four seniors — who were freshmen during the coaches' first year — played a part in the build-up to the winning overtime goal of the Conference USA tournament final.

Erin Morgan finished off the move set up by Katie Loughran, Kelly Roethe and Lanette Rossini to propel Marquette into its first ever NCAA tournament, the first of four straight appearances, as it turned out.

The turn around, however, did not take four years. It arrived like a stampede.

"We tried to keep the game pretty simple, not asking them to play a style that maybe they couldn't play," Roeders said. "And they believed in what we were trying to teach them."

Marquette won 16 games in 1996. Success bred success. Confidence grew.

"Everything we said was golden," said Pelaez, regarding the players' receptivity to instructions.

Marquette would dominate C-USA for nine seasons, winning regular season titles in 1996, 1997 and 2000. Roeders amassed a 132-53-15 record during his first nine years as head coach, and he was named C-USA Coach of the Decade last November.

Consistent with the team mentality that the coaches instilled in their players, their indirect style of play centered on controlling possession of the ball. The

style was a major factor in Heather Goranson's decision to sign with Marquette.

"I liked the atmosphere in practice," said Goranson, who will be a senior midfielder next season. "I could tell Marquette was more team-oriented, which attracted me."

"When the other team can't take it away from you, you're going to have success," Roeders said.

"We don't rely on one player because when you lose them, where do you go from there?"

Despite their altruistic style of play, the Golden Eagles had a handful of stars over the nine-year period.

Roethe is the all-time leading scorer of both Marquette and C-USA with 49 goals.

The central midfielder arrived when Roeders started his tenure, and with 13 goals as a freshman she was the main catalyst during 1996's turn-around season.

"Although she didn't have some of the physical abilities, she had a great feel for the game," Roeders said.

"She wasn't flashy," said Pelaez, who nicknamed Roethe "Roach" because, like a cockroach, she was "un-killable."

Rhegan Hyypio, on the other hand, killed almost every attack that threatened Marquette's goal between 1997 and 2000. The 5-foot-11 defender was named to the 2000 National Soccer Coaches Association of America First Team All-American and was a member of both Marquette teams that advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament in 1999 and 2000.

Kate Gordon, a speedy forward who scored 48 goals from 1999-2002, was named C-USA Co-Player of the Decade. She led the Golden Eagles to four consecutive NCAA tournament bids and was drafted by the Carolina Courage of the now defunct WUSA.

Pelaez never fully grasped Gordon's standout quickness until a 2002 game at top-ranked North Carolina, which would lose in the national semifinals later in the season.

"We knew she was fast … but she was faster than anyone on the field," Pelaez said.

The coaches could comprehend only in hindsight how far the program had come as Marquette's possession style frustrated the best team in the country for over 55 minutes. The Tar Heels flicked a switch and turned a 1-0 deficit into a 4-1 victory in the final 35 minutes, but Roeders was proud of the confidence with which his team played.

This self-belief must re-ignite a Golden Eagles squad that has been grounded, by its own standards, in the past two seasons. The 2003 and 2004 teams combined for a 23-16-2 record, but neither played in an NCAA tournament game.

Marquette's role as the conference favorite will change next fall when it begins play in the Big East, where reigning national champion Notre Dame (among others) resides. Roeders and Pelaez remain undaunted.

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on April 5 2005.