The common theme during the Marquette women's soccer team's 2008 season has been an inability to score consistently.

Against No. 24 Rutgers Sunday, all the Golden Eagles needed was a little bit of extra effort. They got that in the form of a second-half goal from sophomore forward Ashley Bares, leading to a 1-0 win over the Scarlet Knights.

In the 52nd minute, Bares had a ball taken away from her by a Rutgers defender in the right side of the goal box. She slid on the ground to regain possession, then took a few dribbles at goalkeeper Erin Guthrie before slipping a ball along the ground inside the far post.

"I think it's just being hungry for scoring, and wanting to put the ball in the back of the net," Bares said. The ball was "loose, and I just kind of scrambled for it, went in for the tackle with the (Rutgers) girl and got it and put it away."

The goal was Bares' team-leading fifth of the season. She also leads the team in points with 12.

"I told (Bares) do we always have to have game-winning goals or can we add a few more to it?" coach Markus Roeders said. "It's great, we'll take it."

Freshman goalkeeper Natalie Kulla made two saves in the game for the Golden Eagles. The shutout was her sixth of the season, and her goals against average is 0.79. With the win, Marquette advanced the semifinals of the Big East Tournament. As a reward, the Golden Eagles will face undefeated No. 1 Notre Dame on Friday afternoon.

Marquette led 1-0 against Notre Dame on October 5, the Golden Eagles eventually lost that game 2-1.

"No matter where we go from here to Notre Dame and beyond, wherever we are going to be in the mix at the end, I'm really pleased and happy with our seniors," Roeders said. "I would say it was definitely one of the best games we've played in a month or so, our most complete performance in a month."

And that — plus a solid defensive effort that limited Rutgers to eight shots — was more than enough to top the Scarlet Knights.

"I was kind of shocked at how well we played today," defender Katie Kelly said. "I guess I knew that we had it in us, we just really showed a lot of character today that I thought maybe we had lost somewhere along the way.

"We didn't give them any time.I think we have one of the best defenses in the Big East," she added. "I think that was probably one of our best games."