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The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

A Story of Success

A senior during the women's 2009 season, Becky Ryan (No. 11) ended her career with the team's 15-5-3 record that year. Photo courtesy of Marquette Athletics.

A successful program is not built solely by one player or coach. Aaron Rodgers, for example, would not be the quarterback he is without a talented supporting cast and coaches who are intelligent enough to call the right play at the right time.

Success also does not come in just one year. It needs to have a strong foundation and build up over time.

But put both of those together, and you have the blueprint that’s led the Marquette women’s soccer team to morph into the national powerhouse it is today.

No Small Feat

Since coach Markus Roeders and associate head coach Frank Pelaez joined the staff in 1996, the program has gone 236-89-34, and the team has won no fewer than 11 games in each of Roeders’ 16 seasons.

The Golden Eagles have gone to the NCAA Tournament 10 times and have been to the Sweet 16 twice (2005 and 2010) during Roeders’ 16-year tenure, and his teams have produced 93 all-conference, 50 all-region and nine All-American selections.

Additionally, the program has won regular-season conference titles in seven of those 16 seasons and has taken home two tournament crowns to date.

Roeders cited his early years at Marquette and the year 2005 as significant milestones for the program.

Marquette didn’t reach the NCAA Tournament until 1999, Roeders’ fourth year as head coach, but believing the team can be successful is a mentality Roeders said has been critical to the quality of the program since the beginning.

“I think success makes success, so to speak,” Roeders said. “If we hadn’t been so successful previously, I’m not sure we would be where we are today.

“Today, we know that there are only maybe a handful of teams every year that might be better than us, so it comes down to how we prepare for each game and not try to get ahead of ourselves that makes us successful, because we expect to win every game.”

In 2005, that belief paid off. The women went 19-4-1 and reached the Sweet 16 for the first time in program history. They’ve appeared in the NCAA Tournament every year since, with the exception of 2007.

“I think in 2005 we turned the corner on becoming a premier program in women’s college soccer and now certainly that we have won at least a share of three consecutive division championships,” Roeders said. “That year we had a lot of really talented girls, like we seem to have every year now, but even more so then.”

The theme is Family

But the success of the program goes beyond the pitch. Roeders and Pelaez have worked to perpetuate a mantra of “family” that has changed the culture of the women’s soccer team. Roeders said it was something the two of them picked up while they were teammates at UNC-Asheville in the late 1980s.

“We stress it (the mantra) so much right away when the girls come in their first year,” Roeders said. “When Frankie and I were in college, we liked having that support there and even though we weren’t as successful as players as we are now (as coaches), we knew that this was something that we needed to bring to Marquette in order to be successful.”

Roeders said adopting the family mantra is, without a doubt, one of the biggest keys to the team doing well year-in and year-out. Without it, there wouldn’t be the sense of chemistry that every great team needs.

Buying into the mantra doesn’t happen overnight, though. Senior forward Lindsey Page and freshman forward Mady Vicker both said it took them a long time to get used to the idea.

“I think for me, it took about a full year to understand what it means to be a part of this team and how much it means to the seniors at the time that it could be their last game,” Page said. “I think every year you get it a little more and it hurts a little more when it’s your last game.”

Vicker’s sister Sam is a sophomore who joined the team in 2010, so that helped her know what to expect when she arrived at Marquette. But even with that advantage, Vicker agreed it took her almost a full year of playing to understand the mantra and team dynamic.

“I think it was easier for me because my sister is on the team and I have grown up around this,” Vicker said. “But you come in thinking you know what is going on, but you don’t, and it took a year to break my misconceptions of what things were and figure out what (the program) is really like.”

Double Trouble: Sister Power

For both Sam and Mady Vicker to be on the women’s soccer team isn’t an anomaly or a coincidence for Marquette — it’s an element of their success.

Including senior defender Kerry McBride, there are seven current members of the team who have a sister on the team or had one that was part of the program in the past. This thought isn’t lost on Roeders.

“I think what is really great is when a younger girl who had a sister on the team wants to play here because of the great things she has heard from her older sister about what we’re about,” Roeders said. “Look at Maegan Kelly. Her sister (Katie) was here and then there was a span of two years after she graduated and before Maegan joined us where there was nothing.

“But Maegan still decided to come here, I think in part because of what her sister told her about what it’s like to play for Marquette soccer. And I don’t think that’s overrated at all.”

Underclassmen Unite

With just three seniors on the roster this year, Roeders continually depends on younger players to step up and take on larger roles that many other programs around the country likely wouldn’t expect underclassmen to take on.

For Kelly and Vicker, among others, this has turned into instant success. Vicker was named an All-Big East Rookie Team performer this year, while Kelly earned the same honor last year and then garnered All-Big East First Team honors this 2011 season.

Kelly led the team in points (39), goals (14) and assists (11), while starting alongside fellow sophomores like midfielders Taylor Madigan, Kate Reigle and Ashley Stemmeler and sophomore defender Katie Hishmeh.

Kelly believes that success early in her career helped her become more comfortable and feel like part of the team even quicker than some of the younger players.

“I think you gain a lot of confidence from being out there and helping the team out,” Kelly said. “I think the rest of the team has helped me, too, because once you talk to somebody and you get their perspective, the rest of the team notices that.”

Defender Ally Miller, now with three years as a player in Roeders’ program, believes that the success of the program can be attributed to players wanting to come to Marquette because of how good the team has been.

“Every year we have been more successful, and part of that is because when you have more success, more kids want to come here and once they are here, we have great coaches and we get closer as a team every year,” Miller said. “Having a good group of players will help any team be successful, but recruiting the right kinds of players has a big role in (the success) as well.”

Roeders has no doubt that the future of the women’s soccer program is bright and will continue to be successful. He likes that former players come back to watch the team and still feel like they are part of the program, even though their playing days at Marquette are over.

“The former players can still feel the attachment they had when they were players by watching this team now and live through the same emotions that they had when they were athletes,” Roeders said. “They can say, ‘this is what it felt like.’ That’s pretty cool and that’s where you see consistency and the foundation is there and it’s probably stronger than ever.”

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