After putting together its best regular season in program history, No. 19 Marquette’s stay at the Big East Tournament was short lived.
Entering the day in search of their first Big East Tournament win, the odds seemed to been in the favor of the No. 2 seeded Golden Eagles: a perfect 8-0 regular season road record and a win already on the season against its opponent No. 3 seeded UConn.
However, Marquette (15-3, 5-1 Big East) fell short of reaching that milestone, as it was unable to recover from an early deficit as UConn (12-5, 4-2 Big East) knocked out the Golden Eagles 17-16 in the Big East semifinals Friday afternoon in Storrs, Connecticut.
Statistical leaders
Senior midfielder Lydia Foust led the way for Marquette with four goals and three assists. Both senior attacker Shea Garcia and junior midfielder Leigh Steiner added four goals each as well.
UConn was led by senior attacker Kate Shaffer, who finished with four goals and two assists. Graduate student attacker Kate Coon tacked on four goals as well.
Foust finale
Foust rounded out a historic season by setting more records.
After earning Big East Midfielder of the Year and All-Big East First Team honors Thursday, Foust set the program record for free position goals Friday with 38 total.
Foust is the second Marquette player ever to reach 200 career points, joining Garcia.
UConn’s hot start
After only scoring nine total goals in their first meeting, the Huskies came out to a commanding 5-to-0 lead behind goals from senior attacker Sophie Sorenson, Coon, senior midfielder Madelyn George, Shaffer and graduate student attacker Lia Laprise.
With a small shift in momentum, Foust was able to serve one up for Garcia, who scored Marquette’s first goal of the contest at the 4:22 mark of the first quarter.
Foust then got two free position shots in a row, with her first breaking the career record for free position goals.
After a 3-0 run by Marquette, UConn answered with a 4-0 run over the first six minutes of the second quarter. During this run, Shaffer picks up her ninth hat-trick of the season.
Garcia and Foust then went back-to-back within two minutes to bring the Golden Eagles closer, but Sorenson breaks up the run with a goal of her own.
Steiner pulled Marquette within four with her own goal but Sorenson once again answered to give UConn a 11-6 lead heading into the locker rooms.
Claw Back
To open the third quarter, UConn went up by six off of a goal from Davis.
After both teams went back-to-back for the remainder of the third quarter, Steiner went on a personal 3-0 run to fuel the beginning of an extended 7-0 run for Marquette in the opening eight minutes of the fourth. The effort was pushed by Foust, senior midfielder Emma Soccodato and senior attacker Mary Schumar.
However, the Golden Eagles’ comeback ended there as Coon ended a goal for the Huskies in the final minutes.
Up Next
Marquette will now await to hear whether its name is called for the NCAA Tournament. The NCAA Selection Show is scheduled for 8 p.m. CST on Sunday.
This article was written by Emma Kroll. She can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @emma_kroll_.
