Hosting a Big East Championship quarterfinal game was a goal of the Marquette men’s soccer team (9-7-2, 6-2-0 Big East) all season. On Sunday, that goal will become a reality.
The men will battle the No. 15/14 Louisville Cardinals (10-5-2, 3-4-2 Big East) or the No. 25/23 Providence Friars (10-6-1, 5-3-1 Big East), depending upon who wins tonight’s first round contest.
As the fourth seed from the Red Division, Louisville hosts the fifth-seeded Friars from the Blue Division.
In addition to being ranked in the top-25, both teams are in the nation’s top-20 for RPI — ratings percentage index, used to judge a team by its strength of schedule relative to its wins and losses — with Louisville at 17 and Providence at 19.
Marquette defeated the Friars 3-1 on Oct. 8, but the Golden Eagles did not play the Cardinals in 2011. Marquette last played Louisville on Sept. 27, 2009 and drew the Cardinals 2-2.
The Cardinals lead the Big East in shots per game (18.94) and have allowed the second fewest goals per game (0.76). They also lead the Big East in assists per game (2).
“These two teams have different formations, but there are elements to their games that are similar,” coach Louis Bennett said. “Louisville is a little bit more forceful in attack. They get the ball forward and then it’s fast and furious. Providence is a little bit more pragmatic, stay back and only come forward in ones and twos. They’re in it for the long haul. They want to smother you from playing, and then they’ll break forward.”
It is always a struggle to defeat a team twice in one season, as the women’s team figured out Sunday, falling to Notre Dame 1-0 after defeating the Fighting Irish 3-2 on Sept. 25.
Marquette’s preparation, if Providence is the draw, will be different from what it did for the previous Providence battle.
“There is a completely different dynamic (to this game). We had a specific game plan for them on that day, (but) they will change slightly,” Bennett said. “They are a slightly different team. So we probably won’t bring that dynamic into our prep.
“This is a completely different game. The white elephant in the room, if it’s Providence, is (either) that we’ve beaten them and we can beat them again, or we’ve beaten them and it’s hard to beat a team twice in one year.
But junior midfielder Anthony Selvaggi sees the familiarity as a positive, and said if asked to choose between them he’d choose Providence since his knowledge on Louisville is limited.
The Golden Eagles have never beaten Louisville during Bennett’s time as coach, but that doesn’t worry sophomore midfielder Paul Dillon.
“There have been a lot of teams we’ve never beaten before this year that we haven’t beaten or weren’t supposed to beat,” Dillon said. “It’s just another game for us (if we play Louisville).”
Marquette lucked out, in Bennett’s eyes, because the Big East Championship field does not feature any teams that he said like to play “direct.”
“The teams that we haven’t beaten are teams that play really direct,” Bennett said. “But we killed that bird against Pittsburgh. In the beginning of the year we didn’t play really well against teams that played direct, that bypass midfield and played ‘kick-and-run’ or played territorial.”
Marquette has played in the Big East Championship quarterfinal once, losing to Notre Dame 2-1 last season. This is only the third time in six Big East seasons in that Marquette has made the tournament, with all three trips coming the past three years.
