This season, Marquette women’s soccer (4-7-2, 1-2) hadn’t tasted victory away from Valley Fields yet, or won a Big East competition, or scored a conference goal.
Tonight, they got to check all three off their 2024 bucket list.
With shutdown defense and two early goals, the Golden Eagles were able to triumph 2-1 over St. John’s University (5-3-4, 0-2-2).
Marquette grabs its first goal of Big East play
Marquette immediately started using quick touches early in the game to try and open up attacks to capitalize on.
In the ninth minute, sophomore forward Haley Christianson found the bouncing rebound from a corner kick and punted it towards the net from just inside the box. Though, Red Storm goalkeeper Malene Nielsen used a quick leg extension to deflect the ball away.
Christianson would find another chance to aid a score two minutes later when she pushed up the far sideline of the field and booted a high pass across the net. Sophomore forward Emily Fix found the ball on it’s way down and headed it into the top left corner of the goal.
What a pass to this GOALLLLLLLLLLL! #WeAreMarquette pic.twitter.com/Hgq3vC9vUe
— MARQUETTE Soccer (@MarquetteWSOC) October 3, 2024
Jailene DeJesus, the Red Storm’s second most frequent goal-scorer, wouldn’t take this lightly.
She grabbed a pass in front of the net that was fed back to her and punched it just to the left of sophomore goalkeeper Elise Krone to score.
In the 32nd minute, a Marquette corner kick was bounced high into the air right in front of the goal. On its way down, sophomore midfielder Ella McAleenan headed the ball into the net and past Nielsen to make it 2-1 in favor of the blue and gold.
32′ | MU – 2 | St. John’s – 1
Ella McAleenan nets her second goal of the season with a header coming off a set piece from Adrianna Alberts!#WeAreMarquette pic.twitter.com/jXyEF8EyO5
— MARQUETTE Soccer (@MarquetteWSOC) October 3, 2024
St. John’s offense doesn’t show up
The last shot opportunity that St. John’s had would come in the 30th minute. It was shut-down defense from Marquette then on.
To perpetuate this, the first five minutes of the second half included three Golden Eagle corner kicks which created a strong series of attacks and kept the ball on St. John’s side of the field for a while.
Up one, Marquette played patiently, but still tallied 10 shots during the Red Storm’s drought. In that same time, the St. John’s goalkeepers made six saves, but that energy could never be replicated on offense.
The Golden Eagles collapsed on and cleared every offensive attempt that St. John’s made for 60 minutes.
Up Next
Marquette will make the short trip south to Chicago to play DePaul Sunday, October 6 at 1 p.m. CST.
This recap was written by Ben Hanson. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/x @benhansonMU.
