What a difference a week makes.
Last weekend, the Golden Eagles were flying high after defeating conference foes South Florida and UAB at home, but this weekend Marquette continued to struggle on the road, suffering losses at Cincinnati and Louisville.
"This is not the kind of weekend we needed to have," head coach Terri Mitchell said.
Marquette started lethargically against the Cardinals last night and was never able to muster much of a run to get back in the game, eventually falling 70-56.
Mitchell was frustrated with her team's inability to defend against Louisville's 6-3 sophomore center Jazz Covington who picked up 12 points, as well as reserve guard Connie Neal who picked up 14 points in just 19 minutes.
"It all goes through Covington," Mitchell said. "We wanted to concentrate on her, but I'm most disappointed in some of the looks that we gave Connie Neal."
Marquette, which in recent games could always look to sophomore center Christina Quaye for points, was left wanting in this one. She struggled with her shooting, making 4-of-11 attempts and eventually putting up 11 points.
Despite the loss, the team can be heartened by the improvement of freshman forward Svetlana Kovalenko, who led Marquette with 12 points in 30 minutes of action.
In trying to explain why the game turned out like it did, both head coaches thought there may have been some extra motivation stemming from last year.
"The fact that Marquette may have taken our spot in the NCAA Tournament last year was definitely a motivating factor," Louisville head coach Tom Collen said in a statement.
"They (Louisville) are a good team and they were coming out to get us after beating them last year," Mitchell said. "They had something to prove against us."
The story and result was the same when the team went down to Cincinnati to play the Bearcats Friday. The Golden Eagles struggled early with their shot against the lowly Bearcats and eventually succumbed 79-69.
The Golden Eagles made things interesting early in the second half when they tied the game at 40 with a lay-up by junior guard Carolyn Kieger.
However, sophomore Bearcat guard Toni Slaughter killed the comeback attempt with a three-pointer on the next possession. The Golden Eagles never had an answer for her much of the game. She finished with a game-high 22 points, 12 of which came from behind the arc.
Marquette did have their own three-point threat playing well in senior guard Lesley Juedes, who led her team with 19 points, including five treys.
She was not the lone bright spot offensively for Marquette. Quaye had 16 points on 5-of-6 shooting and sophomore forward Jasmine McCullough was able to get to the free throw line, where she scored seven of her 13 points.
Mitchell explained that she was happy with her team's performance in the second half, but ultimately, their lackluster showing in the first half cost them.
"We came out of the half with a lot of intensity, but once we got the game tied at 40, we got away from our game plan," Mitchell said in a statement.
Being out-rebounded also contributed to the difficulty in trying to catch up to the hot-shooting Bearcats. Cincinnati held a 31-24 advantage for the game.
The Bearcats were also able to distribute the ball well against the Marquette defense. Junior guard Micah Harvey led her team with 12 assists and the team as a whole had 22.
This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Feb. 8 2005.