Barely seven minutes had passed in the women's soccer game against Cincinnati, but the Golden Eagles had already experienced the moment that would define their Sunday afternoon.

With Marquette already trailing 1-0, senior defender Katie Kelly stood at the penalty kick mark, ready to fire a shot at Cincinnati goalkeeper Andrea Kaminski. Kelly is one of Marquette's set-piece specialists, often taking every corner kick for the Golden Eagles. She approached the ball, fired the shot and hooked it wide left.

Opportunity missed.

The Golden Eagles would tie the game on a goal from freshman forward Rachael Sloan about 10 minutes later and would create several more scoring opportunities that game. But Marquette never managed to tally another goal, settling for a 1-1 draw.

The tie gave Marquette a 0-1-1 weekend (including a 1-0 loss to Louisville Friday), and dropped them behind West Virginia in the Big East American Division standings. West Virginia stands with 18 points and a 5-1-3 conference record, while Marquette, with 17 points, holds a 5-2-2 record.

"They were not the results we wanted or needed considering our position," Kelly said. "At least we were creating chances (Sunday) though, unlike Friday."

As has been the case all season, the Marquette defense carried the Golden Eagles for much of the game. Marquette outshot Cincinnati 22-3, and the Bearcats registered only one shot in the second half and didn't fire any in either overtime period.

Junior goalkeeper Chelsey Turner, starting in place of freshman Natalie Kulla, didn't even stop a shot. Cincinnati's lone shot came on a goal from Julie Morrissey at the 5:40 mark of the first half.

The goal came on a corner kick from Kristin May, and coach Markus Roeders attributed it to a breakdown in the Marquette defense.

"Unfortunately we've let some goals in on corner kicks this year, I don't know if we're a little jinxed on those types of plays," Roeders said. "It was a breakdown, and they shouldn't be that wide open to get those types of opportunities especially this far into the season."

"I thought it was more of a breakdown on our end than something that (Cincinnati) earned."

Marquette had 11 corner kick opportunities of its own, including eight in the second half. Many produced legitimate scoring chances, and Kelly even knocked one in on her own in the 76th minute, but the goal was disallowed due to a Marquette foul.

The Golden Eagles continued to create scoring chances, and freshman forward Danielle Martens even had a chance to score the game winner on a breakaway with less than two minutes remaining. With the Bearcats' goalie on the ground, Martens' shot found the legs of a Cincinnati defender and was easily cleared.

"If you compare the results from Friday in our play, it was night and day," Roeders said. "I think we definitely stepped up today and played with the energy and the urgency, and we played within ourselves, the way we can play."

Still, Marquette was left to consider its missed opportunities and wonder what might have been.

"The effort was definitely there, we were just unlucky I guess," Sloan said. "We were getting lots of chances, more than we've had in the past.

"It's really frustrating considering how hard we played to get a tie. I think that we definitely should have gotten a win considering all the opportunities we got."