It was the first time in almost two decades that a new face led the Marquette men’s soccer squad.

Almost a year ago, in December 2023, David Korn was announced as the replacement to Louis Bennett, who left after 18 seasons at the helm.

In his Q&A with the Marquette Wire, Korn said he wanted to create a culture of excellence.

The Golden Eagles started off the season living up to that hope, going 3-0 in their opening stints against Drexel, Marist and Yale

The rest of non-conference play, the Golden Eagles went 1-3-1. Losses against Wisconsin and Northwestern were a maturation moment.

“In those two particular games, we needed to be better against very big, strong athletic teams whose style of play at times was a little bit more direct,” Korn said. “We definitely gained a lot of experience, but I think those two games were ones for us that we were disappointed not to at least have gotten a tie-in.”

In Big East play, the team’s record was 2-4-2. It finished in a tie for 8th, an improvement from last season’s 12th place finish.

Victories against Villanova and Butler gave way to draws against Xavier and DePaul, both matches where the squad played down a man.

“To get points on the road down a man were things that we were happy with, but we were disappointed because we felt like maybe we could have gotten more points out of the game if we were a little bit better at managing a couple fouls in a few moments,” Korn said. 

Korn has emphasized the goal of making the conference tournament, since the team has failed to do so since the 2020-21 season.

The team needed a win in the regular season finale to finish fifth and earn a birth, but a 5-2 loss against Creighton might have been the biggest loss of the season.

“Stepping back now there was a lot of progress made, just disappointing in the moment because I feel like our group had qualities to be into the postseason,” Korn said. “We just needed to be better in a couple small areas of the game and excited to see how they respond and use that as motivation.”

Even if the squad didn’t achieve its top goal, Korn’s said he is proud of the family that has been created by his team.

“We were so tight-knit as a family,” junior defender Kyle Bebej said. “That’s been a theme for us. New coach and new players, but the culture remained the same.”

A final record of 6-7-4 leaves much room for the Golden Eagles to grow next season. Specifically, Korn is emphasizing scoring goals at a higher rate and wanting to build competition in each spot on the field, including still adding a couple of attacking players.

“The goals don’t change, we want to be in the postseason, we want to be competing for championships,” Korn said. “We’re motivated, especially for a group that will be seniors next fall. I want them to have their most successful season that they’ve had since they’ve been here. We can do that if we keep building on the culture that we’ve started with.”

There is still much to come under Marquette men’s soccer and its second David Korn chapter.

This article was written by Sofie Hanrahan. She can be reached @[email protected] or on Twitter/X @SofieHanrahanMU.