When the buzzer sounded to signal the end of a 1-0 victory for the Marquette women’s soccer team last Sunday at Valley Fields, the ladies in blue and gold took a deep breath.
They had just nailed down their second 1-0 shut-out on the weekend, and the memory of back-to-back losses the previous weekend was behind them. Now, they had a week to prepare for Georgetown, who sits in third place in the BIG EAST.
The Hoyas gained ground in the conference with a dominating 3-0 victory over Xavier on Wednesday to bring their record to 4-1 and 9-5 overall. Marquette will head to the often-hostile Shaw Field on Saturday sitting in fifth place in the conference with a record of 3-2.
“Playing there is no easy task,” said head coach Markus Roeders. “We’ve never had an easy game there.”
The two teams have swapped 4-0 home victories the past two years, with Marquette winning in Milwaukee in 2013 and Georgetown taking last year’s match in Washington. The foes will feature many of the same players from last year, including Marquette’s senior keeper Amanda Engel and Georgetown’s redshirt senior keeper Emma Newins.
Marquette’s two-game win streak is its only such streak of the season. Three players were named to the weekly honor roll, including Engel for Goalkeeper of the Week and junior Erin Holland as Defensive Player of the Week. The stingy defense will need to continue against Georgetown, which ranks second in the BIG EAST with 2.15 goals per game.
“On defense, you want to have that momentum going forward and (the) feeling like we can win these games,” Roeders said. “We took a nice step forward against Providence. Hopefully we can replicate that going into Sunday.”
The Hoyas lost three-time All-American midfielder Daphne Corboz to graduation (and Manchester City W.F.C.), but her sister, sophomore Rachel, is filling her shoes quite nicely with five goals and six assists on the season. Junior Grace Damaska and sophomore Taylor Pak have added six and five goals, respectively. With his defense in check, Roeders will now look to the offense to turn on the burners.
“If we can now get to a point where we can score two or three (goals), that would be fantastic,” Roeders said. “I don’t assume that’s going to happen against Georgetown, but if we play an all-around complete game, it might be in the stars.”
