Marquette has its first test on its journey to defend the conference crown this afternoon against Georgetown in the first round of the Big East tournament.
This trip will be the second time the Golden Eagles head down to D.C. this season. The teams played a scoreless draw in their previous meeting this year. It was the first time Marquette earned a point at Georgetown since Louis Bennett became coach in 2006.
The Hoyas, ranked 11th in the November 4th NSCAA rankings, went 6-2-1 in Big East play this season. Their two losses came back-to-back against Providence and Seton Hall. But they have won six games in a row since. Georgetown was only one point behind the second-seeded Xavier.
Victory for the Golden Eagles will start with shutting down junior forward Brandon Allen. With 10 goals and three assists, Allen leads the Big East in goals and has 13 more points than the second highest Hoya scorer.
The match will also feature two of the top goalkeepers in the conference, Marquette redshirt senior Charlie Lyon and Georgetown senior Tomas Gomez. Lyon has nine clean sheets this season and just set the school’s all-time career shutout record on Friday. Gomez, the Big East preseason Goalkeeper of the Year, recorded ten shutouts. Gomez and Lyon rank second and third respectively in goals against average.
Marquette leap-frogged two schools to lock up the sixth seed in the tournament on the final day of regular season play with their 4-0 win over DePaul. The Golden Eagles made it to the conference tournament six seasons in a row and were picked as co-favorites to win the conference in the preseason awards, making them the clear dark horse in this year’s bracket.
The Golden Eagles will look to keep up the high-scoring pace they have held over the last two matches. The four goal effort against DePaul came one match after scoring three in a draw with Seton Hall.
The game is likely a must win if the Golden Eagles hope to keep their NCAA tournament hopes alive. Despite their strong non-conference play at the beginning of the season, odds are they would need to have at least one or two victories in the conference tournament to be considered for an at-large bid.
The winner of the match will move on to battle Xavier on Friday. Georgetown needed overtime to defeat Xavier 1-0 earlier this year, while Marquette fell to the Musketeers by the same score.
Georgetown’s stadium, Shaw Field, does not have lights, which means the action kicks off from Georgetown at noon. The match will be followed by the second semifinal of the day, featuring Villanova and Providence. The winner of that match will play the top-seeded Creighton Bluejays. Both games can be watched online on the Big East Digital Network.
