A lot can be deduced from a team’s reaction to the outcome of a game. That reaction shows anyone who is looking what the team expects out of itself.
It is no surprise then that the Marquette women’s soccer team (9-4-2, 3-2-2 Big East) was disappointed with its 0-0 draw against Providence Sunday afternoon at Valley Fields. But while the Golden Eagles viewed a tie as if it were a loss, the Friars were elated.
“It’s always frustrating to see the other team be happy about a tie … slapping hands at the end and being very excited about a tie when to us it’s a loss,” junior midfielder Julia Victor said. “We see it as a loss, we see it as a lost opportunity.”
And why shouldn’t they? After an impressive 3-2 double overtime defeat of No. 24/13 Connecticut, which was leading the Big East American division, the Golden Eagles were in prime position to move up in the standings. But the draw left Marquette tied for fourth in the American division standings.
“I think there’s a lot of good things that happened on the field, but it really wasn’t up to the level that we want,” junior midfielder Rosie Malone-Povolny said. “In order to go as far as we want to go, we have to have higher expectations than that.”
Victor said those expectations come from the type of program coach Markus Roeders and associate head coach Frank Pelaez have put together. But Roeders, for his part, had a slightly different message for his team.
“I think sometimes what they have to understand is that you have to put what you’re trying to do in one game in perspective if you’ve played Friday and Sunday,” Roeders said. “If you get yourself in the hole and you fight back as hard as we did on Friday and you get the result, emotionally and physically you have exerted maybe a little bit more that now you don’t have for Sunday.”
Point being: Don’t underestimate the kind of pressure the double overtime Connecticut victory put on the team — both in the players’ minds and on their bodies.
Nevertheless, Roeders understood his team’s reaction to the draw.
“Providence, they’re happy as heck, because they had a great weekend with the win down in South Florida and the tie today,” he said. “We had a win and we had a tie and we’re not nearly as happy, because the standard is we’re playing to win.”
Victor said despite the team’s apparent disappointment with the outcome of the Providence game, the draw in no way diminishes the result of the Connecticut victory.
“I think the confidence we gain from UConn we’ll keep in our mind. … I don’t think (the draw) takes anything away,” she said. “It might take a little bit away from the weekend as whole, but the UConn win is a separate thing by itself. They’re someone who is competing for the title just as much as we are, and having beaten them gives us a better opportunity. And then (the draw) is just something that will fuel our engines for the next game, hopefully.”
