It was just one year ago that the Marquette women’s soccer team met the Minnesota Golden Gophers on a stormy night in Minneapolis. It was a turbulent affair for the Golden Eagles, who lost the match, 1-0, and endured the long, quiet bus ride home to Milwaukee.
On Friday night, the ladies will have a chance to avenge their loss as they face off against their Midwest foes once again.
“There’s that little bit of extra motivation that maybe we can erase what happened last year,” head coach Markus Roeders said. “It was a bit of an unfortunate loss that I thought, some ways, we probably had the better chances at winning.”
In last year’s match, Marquette out-shot the Golden Gophers 12-9, including a 6-2 shots on goal differential. Gophers’ freshman forward Sydney Squires netted the golden goal in the 59th minute, while sophomore keeper Tarah Hobbs shut down Marquette’s attack for all 90 minutes.
The Golden Eagles hope to get out to a fast start and not dig themselves a hole against the Gophers, much like they did in last Sunday’s victory against Boston University when they had three shots on goal in the first half.
Having played Wisconsin in the preseason and Michigan in Ann Arbor already this season, Roeders feels the team is prepared for their next Big Ten opponent.
“We’re technical, but we can also be physical,” Roeders said. “I think we’re getting seasoned and I don’t think there’s going to be any team that’s going to surprise us.”
His team should certainly have the Gophers’ number. Marquette returns 13 players who started or entered the match last year. Redshirt senior Jacie Jermier, who moved to the midfield last match, should be well-adjusted to equal the pace of last year’s game. Minnesota, who sits at 2-1-1 after two weeks of play, returns 10 players who appeared in last year’s match.
While the Gophers’ have outscored opponents 12-1, Marquette notched six goals from six different scorers last weekend.
Marquette owns a 2-2 record, with both losses coming the past two Friday evenings at Valley Fields. And while Roeders would be happy with a 1-0 win, he said, he also wouldn’t mind another three-goal performance.
