Unfortunately for the Marquette women's soccer team, it didn't get any lucky bounces during a 0-0 draw against Syracuse at a rain-soaked Valley Fields this afternoon.,”Sometimes a 110-minute, two-overtime game of soccer can be decided by a few fortunate bounces here and there.
Unfortunately for the Marquette women's soccer team, it didn't get any lucky bounces during a 0-0 draw against Syracuse at a rain-soaked Valley Fields this afternoon.
The Golden Eagles outshot Syracuse (5-6-4, 1-4-2 Big East) 19-1 for the game, with goalkeeper senior Laura Boyer needing to make just one save midway through the first half. Senior Allison Mallams, playing in just her second game of the season, led Marquette (11-2-2, 4-2-2) with six shots including two on goal.
Marquette came out firing quickly against the Orange, taking nine total shots in the first half. Sophomore Brittany Bares, in what would become a common theme for Marquette, narrowly missed scoring in the ninth minute when her shot from about 20 yards out arced just over the Syracuse goalkeeper's hand and slammed off the crossbar.
Senior Christy Zwolski did Bares one better when she actually put the ball in the net from inside the box at the 15 minute mark, but the forward was called for an offsides penalty that negated the score.
"I thought that we played pretty good soccer in the first half, and possessed it pretty well," head coach Markus Roeders said. "We did everything except we didn't score today, and that can happen."
Roeders said his team experienced a bit of a lull in the second half in which neither team managed many quality opportunities. The Golden Eagles generated some energy in the overtime periods leading to a few near misses on the Marquette end.
Three Golden Eagles had a shot at an open net after a Syracuse player kicked at a ball and missed it with five minutes left in the second overtime. All three shots were blocked until the Orange could regain possession. Zwolski created perhaps the best scoring chance of the day when she fired a corner kick that flashed through the Syracuse box with 30 seconds left to play. The only problem was, no one could get in the right position to finish off the play.
"At the end of the day we can only blame ourselves," Roeders said. "We had three or four really good chances. Even at the very end we had a great chance, you just need someone on the other end. It's very disappointing because we wanted a win and we did everything we had to except score a goal."
After maintaining possession for the better part of both halves and creating most of the play in the overtime sessions, Mallams said the result "felt like a loss" for the Golden Eagles. She said part of the reason Marquette failed to capitalize on even one of its many scoring chances was the steady rain that fell throughout the match.
"I think the weather played a big part," she said. "It's just the fact that you can't really expect anything. On one of our chances, the ball just got stuck in the mud. You just have to keep playing."
Still, she said Marquette could find some positives despite the less than desirable result.
"Our mentality going in was to work hard. Our coaches tell us before the game that 'we want you to work hard for a full 90 minutes.' That was our mentality going in," she said. "It just wasn't meant to be today."
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