It was deja vu for Marquette women’s soccer.
Almost one year ago to the date, the Golden Eagles opened up Big East play with a win over the DePaul Blue Demons in Chicago, Illinois.
In this season’s Big East lidlifter, Marquette (4-4-2, 1-0 Big East) did the same, defeating DePaul (4-3-1, 0-1 Big East) 2-1 Thursday night at Valley Fields.
“It’s a win, dog,” Marquette head coach Frank Pelaez said. “It’s fabulous. We’re going to shoot the ball really hard and we’re going to put it into the back of the net. That’s what the whole mindset was all day long.”
This marked the Golden Eagles’ fifth consecutive and 19th all-time win against the Blue Demons.
Early offensive burst
Coming into the match, Marquette had only tallied five goals on the year.
After the first half, the Golden Eagles had added two more to take the lead for just the second time this season heading into the locker room.
In the 21st minute, first-year forward Taylor Schad dribbled the ball from near the halfway line all the way into the box, firing it into the top right corner for her second career goal.
HALFTIME | MU – 2 | DPU – 0 | We are at the half, so let’s look back at our first-half goals! First, it was freshman Taylor Schad with her second in three outings. pic.twitter.com/ioVWWgQVFq
— MARQUETTE Soccer (@MarquetteWSOC) September 22, 2023
This also marked Schad’s second goal in three matches.
“She’s got some shimmy to her,” Pelaez said. “She’s going to do her thing all the time. (We) just have to keep her healthy. She’s been doing that all her life, at the high school level.”
Seven minutes later, senior defender Aeryn Kennedy fired the ball into the box off a free kick, finding junior forward Kate Gibson who slotted it into the bottom left corner to put the Golden Eagles ahead 2-0.
This goal was not only Gibson’s first of the season, but also marked Kennedy’s first career assist.
“Great team goal,” Gibson said. “Aeryn has a great foot. It bobbled around, and I’m just thinking in my head, ‘How can I get that in the back of the net?’ I saw my chance and I took it. It was a total team goal.”
Marquette went into the locker room up 2-0, and although DePaul netted one goal in the second half, Schad and Gibson’s work was enough to secure the Golden Eagles’ second victory at Valley Fields.
Statistical leaders
Schad and Gibson led Marquette offensively with one goal each. In her first start since Aug. 27, senior midfielder Hailey Block recorded one shot on goal in 77 minutes of action.
For DePaul, first-year midfielder Lea Eisenring netted her team’s only goal off a penalty kick in the 85th minute. Graduate student goalkeeper Elena Milam recorded two saves.
Up next
Marquette will close out its four-game homestand against Butler (4-4-2, 0-0-1 Big East) Sunday at 1 p.m. CST.
“We just need to take this momentum that we have now, this good winning feeling that we have and just carry it over this weekend mentally and physically,” Gibson said. “The Sunday games are the hardest coming from the Thursday game.”
This story was written by Kaylynn Wright. She can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @KaylynnWrightMU.
