Another game, another 1-1 draw for the Marquette women’s soccer team. This time, the result came in a crucial derby match against UW-Milwaukee Wednesday on the East Side.
The Golden Eagles back line of defense shined for much of the match, keeping the Panthers attack at bay. They benefited from a gutsy performance by freshman keeper Sloane Carlson, who made her first career start for Marquette and notched two saves in net.
“I thought she played phenomenally tonight for the short time period that she had to prepare,” said senior captain Ann Marie Lynch.
Veteran keeper Amanda Engel sat out the match to serve her one-game suspension for picking up a red card in Sunday’s 5-1 loss at LSU. It was her first missed start in blue and gold since Marquette’s BIG EAST opener against Pittsburgh Sept. 13, 2012.
The Panthers got on the board first in the 22nd minute when junior Callie O’Donnell grounded a ball past Carlson’s left side.
Marquette responded just 91 seconds later when junior Erin Holland received a ball nearly at midfield after a corner clearance. Holland sent a lofting ball back into the box, and UWM keeper Paige Lincicum waved off her teammates. Suddenly, the ball bounced high off the artificial turf surface and over the head of Lincicum into the net, tying the game.
“We practice that when the ball comes out and you’re the last defender, you just want to get it back in,” Lynch explained. “A lucky bounce and the goalie was caught off guard but that’s what (Holland) was taught to do in practice. It was a great goal.”
As the weather cooled and the fog rolled in at Engelmann Stadium, the offense disappeared. The final 80-plus minutes of the game saw a handful of turnovers and not many solid chances from either side. Marquette controlled possession for much of the match and outshot UWM 14 to 10, including a 5-3 shots on goal advantage, but the Golden Eagles weren’t able to break through the UWM defense.
Head coach Markus Roeders said his team “lacked a final punch.”
“There’s a lot of elements that we have in our play that are really good, and what we really don’t have is that killer instinct to score,” Roeders said. “We were trying to make some adjustments in our system to start off with and sometimes things just look better on paper than when you try to execute them in the game.”
Wednesday’s draw was Marquette’s third with a 1-1 score in its last four matches. Their record stands at 3-4-3 heading into BIG EAST play this Sunday against Creighton, who had a 7-3 record in non-conference play.
“I think it’s just our mindset of putting the ball in the back of the net,” Lynch said. “We’ve been climbing up that mountain with all these ties and I think that once BIG EAST play starts we’re going to get over that hump and the goals are going to flow.”
