A year ago at this time the women's basketball team was getting ready to hit the road for a WNIT quarterfinal game against Kentucky.

This year, Marquette found itself with another chance to make the quarterfinals, but the Golden Eagles' bid fell short when the they lost to Illinois State 51-50 last Thursday.

In a game that saw 21 lead changes and 15 ties, it was fitting that it would come down to a final shot.

Marquette had the lead 50-49 with less than 10 seconds left when senior Erin Monfre fouled Illinois State's Kristi Cirone. Cirone sank two free throws and a shot by Angel Robinson rimmed out at the buzzer. Just like that, Marquette's season was over.

"To be honest, I thought it was in," Robinson said after the game. "Things happen. I am going to make that shot."

Robinson finished the game with a team-high 15 points and freshman Jessica Pachko had another solid game with 12 points and seven rebounds.

Perhaps someday Robinson will make a shot like that for Marquette in the postseason. But for now she and her teammates, particularly the seniors, have to deal with the realization that the season is over.

"When I got back to my room I couldn't sleep," senior Krystal Ellis said. "I did all my laundry and cleaned my room, cleaned the apartment, I think that's when it hit me and I couldn't sleep."

Ellis retires as the school's all-time leading scorer. She finished Thursday's game at Illinois State with zero points, going 0-for-8 from the field in 13 minutes of play.

Coach Terri Mitchell said from the beginning of the WNIT that her younger players would play, and that this postseason was as much about the future as now.

"I am excited about what the young players did and how we are going to build a future," Mitchell said. "We have competed and we were there. Now we are going to make sure we finish those games out."

Marquette will have to finish those games out next year without three key seniors in Ellis, Monfre and Marissa Thrower. They might not have pulled out the win, but Mitchell knows how close they were, and what that could mean in the future.

"The end of the day we didn't finish it," Mitchell said. "That is the part to build on."

Marquette certainly has some solid pieces in place to build a winning team. Robinson led the team in scoring as a sophomore at 13.9 points per game, and Pachko seemed at times like Marquette's most consistent scorer, averaging 8.9 ppg. Newcomer Lauren Thomas-Johnson became a starter in the postseason, and freshman Georgie Jones provided another viable low-post option for the Golden Eagles.

"The new players like Georgie and Jess, you know, they probably haven't experienced this many losses ever before in their careers, but I think we all learned how to win," Robinson said.

Marquette finished the season with an overall record of 17-16. Robinson's hope is that the losses the team experienced this season will motivate next year's team to do great things. The team will look a little different without Ellis on the floor, but her legacy will continue with the efforts of her teammates.