Marquette University Athletics
Women's Soccer Blanks Vanderbilt, 1-0
8/29/2003 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Aug. 29, 2003
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MILWAUKEE - The Marquette won its season opener, defeating Vanderbilt, 1-0 as part of the second match of the 2003 Milwaukee Cup.
The Golden Eagles scored the match's lone goal in the 81st minute. Senior midfielder Carolyn Klopp struck a right-footed shot that looped over an oncoming Stacee Sproul, Vanderbilt's goalkeeper. Klopp had ran onto a ball from senior midfielder Laura Culane. Culane fed the long ball from the far left side, crossing to the racing Klopp. Klopp outran Vanderbilt defender Monica Buff for the winning score.
"I told our team at halftime that it would just take one moment of magic," head coach Markus Roeders said. "Tonight, everyone stepped up as a team. For us, it's very exciting. We have new group of players that played very exiting soccer at times."
Other than the lone tally, the pace of play was very even for most of the match. Neither team gathered much momentum. Marquette junior goalkeeper Katie Bissen earned a shutout in her first start. She made three saves. Sproul also made three saves for the Commodores.
In all, Marquette played well as a whole, but the defensive unit came through after it had been decimated in a 4-0 exhibition loss to Illinois on August 22.
"I'm proud of the way this group reacted tonight," Roeders said. "After our exhibition game, there were some doubts, even among our players. We tried to remind them that they were in the middle of their preseason workouts and that this was a process."
In earlier action in the Milwaukee Cup, Dayton defeated Wis.-Milwaukee in the first match of the tournament, 1-0.
The tournament concludes on Sunday, August 29. Vanderbilt plays Wis.-Milwaukee at noon at Engelmann Field on the Wis.-Milwaukee campus. Marquette meets Dayton to wrap up the tournament at 2:30 p.m. at Engelmann Field.
