Marquette women’s soccer had one last opportunity to earn a statement win at Valley Fields this season in a Sunday matinee against St. John’s.

But the offensive woes that have impacted the Golden Eagles (5-9-4, 2-4-2 Big East) all season still lingered, leading the Red Storm (9-5-3, 4-4-1 Big East) to a 3-0 victory.

“Credit to St. John’s, they came out with a game plan and they executed really early,” Marquette head coach Frank Pelaez said. “We were one step slow coming out of the gates.”

Statistical leaders

While there were six Golden Eagles that had shots, only senior forward Alexa Maletis put one on target. Senior goalkeeper Mikki Easter ended with six saves.

For St. John’s, graduate student midfielder Jessica Garziano earned two assists and six shots with four of them forcing a reaction from Easter.

As a team, the Red Storm finished with 15 shots, while the Golden Eagles had eight.

Doubling down

Before today, the last nine goals scored at Valley Fields were against Marquette. It only took seven minutes for that number to increase to 10.

St. John’s junior midfielder Jailene DeJesus controlled the ball on the edge of the 6-yard-box and put the ball into the top-center of the net to give the Red Storm a 1-0 lead.

7’ | JOHNNIES GOAL‼️

Jailene DeJesus puts us in front with the early goal 🔥 pic.twitter.com/K1EzsKTaGU

— St. John’s WSoccer (@StJohnsWSoccer) October 22, 2023

And after taking the lead, St. John’s doubled down and made it 2-0 in the 15th minute off an own goal from Marquette.

The Storm would go into the locker room ahead 2-0 with 10 shots compared to the Golden Eagles’ one.

Slamming the door

Once St. John’s took the lead, it added onto it with the only goal of the second half.

Senior midfielder Ava Collins received a pass from Garziano and put the ball over Easter’s head to the top center of the goal to make it 3-0 Red Storm in the 59th minute.

59′ | JOHNNIES GOAL!

Collins with the finish as Garziano tallies her second assist of the day and ties the single-season record with 11 on the year. pic.twitter.com/sPjZbt3Xzo

— St. John’s WSoccer (@StJohnsWSoccer) October 22, 2023

It marked Collins’ third goal of the season and Garziano’s second assist of the match.

After that, each team had sporadic chances, but the damage was done and the Golden Eagles could not gain any ground, ending in their ninth shutout loss of the year.

Up next

Marquette will play its final regular season match of the season at No. 20 Xavier (11-2-4, 4-0-4 Big East) Thursday night at Corcoran Field. The game is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. CST.

“We just got to get two halves together,” Pelaez said.

This article was written by Jack Albright. He can be reached [email protected] or on Twitter @JackAlbrightMU.