Almost as soon as the last second ticked off the clock in the women's soccer team's loss to Minnesota in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, Marquette's healing process began.

The Golden Eagles started by sifting through the memories of their 2008 season, building to reflection and, eventually, preparation for next year. That healing process, though, won't be completed until the opening whistle in the fall of 2009.

"A lot of it is mentally dealing with the toughness of losing. Obviously after that, the light comes back on and you start thinking about next year," assistant coach Dano Holcomb said. "I don't know if you really ever get over it.

"It can take a couple of days, it can take months. I think until you blow the whistle for your first game of the fall it's always in the back of your mind, your final game."

To change the outcome of that final game, Marquette will need to develop replacements for a talented group of senior defenders (Katie Kelly, Shannon Cusick and Kelli DeBarge) and find a scorer capable of finishing with consistency.

At the start of the season, coach Markus Roeders said his Marquette squad was one of the deepest he'd ever had. But throughout the year the Golden Eagles struggled to score goals. Sophomore forward Ashley Bares (five goals, three assists) emerged as the team's most reliable scoring threat but only two other players — freshman Danielle Martens and sophomore Julia Victor — scored more than two goals.

There were bright spots: Freshman goalkeeper Natalie Kula (9-5-2, 0.79 goals against average) appeared to develop into a suitable replacement for the graduated Laura Boyer; the Golden Eagles won back-to-back road games in New York (at St. Johns and Syracuse) in October; and Marquette competed for the title in the Big East Conference American Division before earning a somewhat unlikely berth into the NCAA Tournament.

"Just watching the team together was a high point," Bares said. "I want to believe we work harder than any other team, and that's kind of our motto. Starting from the day we come back and even before that."

Of course, there were lows too. It took until Oct. 3 for Marquette to score more than two goals in a game (a 4-2 win over DePaul), and it never accomplished that feat again. The Golden Eagles lost a 2-0 decision to West Virginia Oct. 24 that eliminated their chance of earning a No. 1 seed in the Big East Tournament, and struggled in their second match against Notre Dame, losing a 2-0 result that wasn't even that close. And then, there was that loss to Minnesota.

"Everyone is still recovering from the shock of losing (to Minnesota) and the season being over. I know personally little things hit me," Cusick said. "We had ups and downs throughout the season, but I think at the end everything just started to fall into place . I think a lot of players grew up."

And part of that is looking toward the spring, and eventually fall, soccer seasons. Bares said before the season that the Marquette players sent training updates via email to each other. She said that those emails helped hone the team's goals for this season.

"Those emails helped us a lot, it just made everyone realize what we wanted to accomplish," she said. "Although we did get close, we came together . unfortunately had a few rough things happen on the way there.

"I think it was nice having the e-mails and I definitely don't think it's going to stop. If anything I think we're going to get more and more."