Marquette women’s soccer fell short in their attempt to capture a third BIG EAST tournament title Sunday.
The No. 7 Georgetown Hoyas scored their second 2-0 win of the season over the Golden Eagles in the BIG EAST championship.
“It was a great challenge for us today,” head coach Markus Roeders said. “You know you get into these moments, you get into championship situations, and really have to have everybody clicking. And I thought Georgetown probably had that more than we did today.”
Grace Damaska put Georgetown ahead in the 22nd minute when she unleashed a powerful blast from more than 20 yards out that went in off the crossbar. Just a minute earlier, Damaska was denied on a breakaway attempt by Maddy Henry.
Early in the second half Rachel Corboz finished off a rebound after another Henry save to make it 2-0.
“Soccer’s about who makes the least mistakes, and I think we made the little mistakes that cost us and they didn’t make as many as we did,” senior forward Liz Bartels said.
An impressive performance from Hoya defender Marina Paul and goalkeeper Arielle Schechtman locked up the shutout for Georgetown.
Schechtman has allowed just one goal in her last 12 games against teams other than DePaul.
Her Marquette counterpart, Henry, notched seven saves in the loss, adding to her list of impressive performances down the stretch this season.
“We’ve got a little bit of a chip on our shoulder now and I think we definitely want to come back and come out Friday or Saturday, whenever, a lot stronger than we did today,” Henry said. “So we’ve got some more motivation than we already had.”
Maddy Henry, Morgan Proffitt and Friday’s hero Carrie Madden were named to the All-BIG EAST tournament team.
Marquette will need to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament after failing to earn the automatic bid with a BIG EAST tournament title. That should be no problem for the Golden Eagles, who sit at No. 26 in the RPI and received four votes in the latest NCAA Coaches’ Poll.
“We have to put our faith in the hands of the committee right now that there’s more soccer to be played for us,” Roeders said. “Whatever comes our way, we will have earned it.”
Their fate will be announced on tomorrow’s NCAA selection show at 3:30 p.m.
