Marquette women’s soccer’s NCAA Tournament fate was announced during Monday afternoon’s selection show, and somewhat surprisingly, the team will have to travel. The Golden Eagles will head to Madison to take on the Wisconsin Badgers for their first round game.
“First of all we’re in the NCAA Tournament, how exciting is that?” head coach Markus Roeders said. “You know, one of the at-large teams that got in. They consider us one of the top teams in the country and here we are.”
This is Marquette’s 14th official meeting with Wisconsin, and they own a 5-6-2 record all-time against the Badgers. It’s their third NCAA tournament match against the Badgers. They advanced twice, once in regulation and once in a shootout. All three previous Marquette-Wisconsin NCAA Tournament matches have been played at Valley Fields.
“Of course it’s a team that we know very well,” Roeders said. “They’ve had a very good season.”
The Golden Eagles played Wisconsin in an exhibition match before the season that the Badgers won 2-0.
The surprise of Wisconsin hosting comes from the team’s RPIs. Wisconsin was No. 35 in the latest RPI poll, but Marquette was No. 26. Since that poll Marquette earned a win over St. John’s and fell to RPI No. 10 Georgetown in the BIG EAST Championship game. In that same time Wisconsin lost on penalty kicks to Michigan, who Marquette defeated 2-1 in August, in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals.
“We thought we were gonna host,” Morgan Proffitt said. “But it doesn’t matter. We got a game and we’re happy about that, and we’re just gonna go there and try and win.”
“You know in the NCAA Tournament a lot of things can happen,” Roeders said. “So I’m just excited to get another opportunity to play. Once you get in the tournament you want to win games and this is where we’re at.”
