The Marquette men's soccer team knew that Saturday's performance against Providence was unacceptable. There was no need for coach Louis Bennett to reaffirm that.

"There are games that require a little bit more of a forceful talk, and there are games that don't," Bennett said. "After the Connecticut game that was appropriate and after the Providence game it wasn't appropriate.

"The coach's job is to tell them what they don't know, not what they do know."

What the players know is that after losing to West Virginia Wednesday night, they are now mathematically eliminated from the Big East Tournament. The Golden Eagles needed to beat the Mountaineers and win their next game against Georgetown on Saturday, while getting a little help from some other teams as well, in order to back their way in to the tournament.

That scenario didn't pan out as Marquette marched out of Morgantown with the 2-0 loss.

At the same time, the Golden Eagles also know that a win over Georgetown – ranked No. 5 in the Big East – would go a long way to salvage a disappointing season, at least from a morale standpoint.

Despite a 3-9-4 record (1-7-2 in the Big East) Marquette has stayed close in most of its games this season, with the exception of the 4-1 loss at Notre Dame. As a result, it is a commonly held opinion on the team that the poor 2-0 showing against Providence on Saturday was something of a fluke.

"Even though we haven't been winning as much, we play well the majority of the time," sophomore forward Anthony Colaizzi said. "Providence was just a bad show for the majority of the team…We know we're so much better than that."

According to Bennett, no one on the team played anywhere close to his full potential against Providence, with the exception of junior defender Tim Jallow, who seemed to be everywhere on the field.

But one man cannot win a game that is played by 11.

"We just need to come in more prepared," Jallow said. "Against Providence we looked like we weren't prepared to play at all. We just need to focus on what's at hand."

Bennett agreed that the team needs to be better prepared, especially when it comes to adjusting to early changes in the game. Against Providence, the Golden Eagles allowed two early goals and completely fell out of their game plan.

Even after Saturday's game, however, the team still believed it had a shot to make the Big East Tournament. The Golden Eagles have played better on the road than they have at Valley Fields, with two of their wins and one of their draws coming at away matches.

"It's definitely possible," Bennett said before his team's loss to West Virginia. "We wouldn't have traveled if it wasn't possible. Our cynics would say it's not probable, we're saying it's possible."

It didn't happen though, and now the team is left with Georgetown. But with the Big East Tournament out of the picture, the Golden Eagles will begin looking to the future and to what has been Bennett's goal all season.

"We've got guys that are fully invested. We've got guys that are fully dedicated to what we want to do," Bennett said. "Everyone here knows what the small and the big time picture is. The big time picture is, win-by-win we have to create a winning tradition."