Standing on the sidelines immediately following the Marquette women's soccer team's regular season-ending 2-0 win over Pittsburgh, freshman forward Danielle Martens almost seemed relieved.

"Today was really important for us," said Martens, who scored a goal to help Marquette clinch a No. 2 seed in the Big East Tournament. "I think we're finally to the point where the hardest is behind us. We're finally on the uprise."

For the goal-challenged Golden Eagles, the worst of their scoring drought might be behind them – they managed a 1-0 win over Rutgers in the quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament Sunday. But the toughest part of their schedule, a semifinal date with undefeated No. 1 Notre Dame (19-0-0, 11-0-0 Big East), lies ahead Friday.

The last time Marquette (11-6-3, 6-3-2) and Notre Dame met, in South Bend, Ind. on Oct. 5, the Fighting Irish won a 3-1 decision. Marquette struck first but fell victim to several defensive lapses in the loss.

"We can definitely work on, if we score first, how we react. Not be too lackadaisical, which I think we were against Notre Dame," senior defender Katie Kelly said. "A good team like that will take advantage of any mistakes you make, and we made about three mistakes so we got three goals scored on us."

But the Golden Eagles earned an admittedly small moral victory by becoming the first team to have Notre Dame in a deficit all season when Martens scored in the 60th minute.

Junior forward Anna Sawicki said the mental aspect of Friday's game will be the most important to Marquette, and said that lone goal from Martens could have a positive effect.

"In order for us to stop Notre Dame, we have to believe that we are as good as them or better than them. If you look at their roster . their resumés obviously outdo ours," Sawicki said. "I think that we can work harder.

"I think that when we played them (last), our mentality changed (with Martens' goal). We were like 'Wow, we actually scored once, they're beatable. We can beat them' . staying mentally strong throughout the entire game would have helped."

To that end, the Golden Eagles have taken a slightly different approach to practice this week. On Monday they went for a team run through Marquette's campus, instead of an organized practice or a day off. Kelly said the jog was just a chance for the team to "get together."

Coach Markus Roeders warned against the dangers of "over-preparing" for a team like Notre Dame.

"We're not overdoing it, I think you have to be careful not to over-prepare," Roeders said. "The good thing is that we've played them before. You know some of the tendencies . we're not (fooling) ourselves, we're playing the top team in the country."

What practice the Golden Eagles have been doing will likely focus on limiting Notre Dame's ability to possess the ball and responding to the aggressive nature of the Fighting Irish attack. Kelly said the Golden Eagles might also try to get more physical and work on responding to pressure in the practices before Friday.

"Maybe we need to knock each other around a little more in practice, they're big girls," Kelly said. "I think working under pressure (will be important). I think we did that really well (against Pittsburgh). I'm hoping that can translate to Friday."