The Marquette women’s soccer team won their second game of the season against the Illinois State Redbirds 3-2 at the Valley Fields dome Sunday afternoon. The match was filled with plenty of back and forth play that was a true tale, as the first was scoreless and the second had five goals in total.
For the Golden Eagles, the first goal was in the 46th minute as Kylie Sprecher, senior forward, received a pass from junior midfielder/defender Madison Burrier. Sprecher gave Marquette the lead in the first minute of the half.
The lead was short lived however, as is senior midfielder Ashley Santos scored her first goal of the season, two minutes after MU’s goal. The equalizer crossed into the goal after Easter was unable to punch away a Redbird cross by first-year forward Haley Glover.
Marquette came back swinging with a goal a little bit over 10 minutes later on a solo effort from Elsi Twombly, the first-year midfielder/forward. Twombly beat the defender down the line and sent a low right-footed shot on goal. The shot beat the Redbird netminder Priya Gillan, a red-shirt sophomore. The ball appeared to have taken a touch off of Alex Campana, who was originally credited with the goal before it was changed a few minutes later back to Twombly.
Marquette doubled its lead in the 75th minute after Sprecher dispossessed a Redbird defender and slotted a pass to Elaina Eckert, the senior forward. The Golden Eagle forward was one-on-one with the keeper from Illinois State and lofted Sprecher’s pass into the goal to go up 3-1.
With fifteen minutes left to play, Illinois State and its energetic bench made sure the game still intense as Santos netted another goal for the brace. Santos had half of the team’s shots on target in the match and converted in the 78th minute to bring the Redbirds to within one.
The Golden Eagle squad, which saw minutes played by 18 of its 30 members, was able to hold off the final Redbird efforts in the closing minutes after the goal.
Marquette finished with a 3-2 victory, which gives the Golden Eagles their second consecutive victory this weekend.
Mikki Easter, the first-year netminder played all 90 minutes for the Golden Eagles, accumulating four saves on eight shots faced. On the other end, Gillan had seven saves on 18 shots faced.
The shots on goal differential, Marquette’s 11 to Illinois State’s 6, didn’t tell the story of the match as the Golden Eagles second test was won by only one goal.
Pelaez now has won his second match of his new career at Marquette.
Marquette will face Loyola Chicago for a Valentine’s Day matchup next weekend at home.
This story was written by Bryan Geenen. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @BryanGeenen.
