Moments earlier, Marquette head women's soccer coach Markus Roeders had sidled up to her on the sideline.,”Sophomore defender Katie Miller stood at the midfield line Sept. 28 in the 67th minute against Providence, waiting for her nerves to subside. Only they didn't.

Moments earlier, Marquette head women's soccer coach Markus Roeders had sidled up to her on the sideline. She had heard these words before, but they had never meant this much. "Miller, we want you to go in," Roeders said.

On defense. At left back. She'd never played there before. Not in a game for Marquette, at least. One goal in 10 games to that point. That defense. The area the coaches stressed. The area the players took pride in. The defense. For Julia. Blade. The one who sacrificed. The one who was on top of her game.

On defense.

"There were a lot of nerves against Providence," Miller said. "There was a crisis when Julia went down. I started questioning myself. I was frantic, a little panicky."

Nine matches later, Miller has settled into her role as a starter on the Marquette backline. Meanwhile, senior Julia Egasti, the player Miller subbed in for that night against the Friars, is working her way back to full strength after missing five games due to a kidney infection.

Roeders described the situation as a "Catch 22." Miller has sufficiently filled her position over the past month and has formed a new cohesiveness with the rest of the backline. Egasti is ready to be integrated back into the lineup. Her fitness level has not completely returned, but it is getting close.

"I feel like I'm stepping on her toes, but it's not my decision; it's up to the coaches," Miller said of holding on to a spot in the starting lineup. "I feel like I have taken over her position a little bit. I want to support her, but I don't know how."

Prior to this season, Egasti played in the midfield. She defended because everyone was expected to defend, but it was neither her defined role nor her specific responsibility. When the coaches asked her to switch to the backline, she did so because it was her best chance to obtain quality minutes during her final season.

"I don't really care where I am as long as I'm on the field," Egasti said.

With that in mind, she took to her new position with the eagerness of a freshman, peppering junior defender Shannon Cusick, the quarterback of the backline, with question after question.

On the field, Egasti was relentless in her pursuit of the ball. Though her aggressiveness sometimes translated to needless fouls, the mentality she displayed left a mark on both her opponents and her coaches.

"Her timing on her (slide) tackling is vicious," associate head coach Frank Pelaez said. "It makes you cringe sometimes, the way she tackles people. I call her 'Blade.' "

When Egasti went down with an ankle injury against Providence, her teammates were understandably concerned. Their alarm heightened two days later, when Egasti sat out a 5-0 loss to Connecticut with stomach pains from what she thought was a bad reaction to pain medication.

Worse still was that Egasti's condition did not improve over the next week. She was too ill to attend the match Oct. 5 against Villanova and was checked into a hospital the following day.

Blood tests revealed her white blood cell count was high, and doctors eventually concluded she had a kidney infection. She was released after a three-day stay and sat out two more days of practice, as well as the following weekend's matches.

Meanwhile, Miller was making strides toward gelling with the rest of the defense. "That first game was a little chaotic; I'm not sure if everyone felt comfortable with me back there yet," she said. "After the UConn game, people had more faith in me. We kept fighting even though that game was not pretty."

Cusick said due to the rest of the defensive line's lack of height, Miller's key strength lies in her ability to win balls in the air.

Sunday, the Golden Eagles will take on Louisville in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament. Miller will start on defense, Egasti will come off the bench to play outside midfielder and Marquette will hope that arrangement suffices.

"With defense, you know one thing for certain," Miller said. "You have to sacrifice for the team."

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