Kulla, Sloan and Miller Honored by the BIG EAST
10/26/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Oct. 26, 2009
MILWAUKEE - Sophomores Natalie Kulla and Rachael Sloan and senior Katie Miller were honored Monday by the BIG EAST Conference following a pair of wins that gave the Marquette women's soccer team its first-ever BIG EAST American Division title. Sloan was named the BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Week, Kulla was tabbed BIG EAST Goalkeeper of the Week and Miller was selected to the weekly honor roll.
"Congrats to Natalie, Rachael and Katie. These are deserving recognitions of their play this weekend and throughout the year," said head coach Markus Roeders. "There were several exciting moments for our team this weekend with the overtime win at Syracuse and winning the title at St. John's. Their hard work has paid off. We faced two tough teams and to come away with two `W's' speaks about our play and maturity as a team. Those three have played major roles for us all year and will continue to do so. But, the credit should go to all the ladies who continue to raise the bar in their play and focus. They wanted to be the first to win a BIG EAST title, now they have a chance to extend the season with every game they get to play. We enjoyed it yesterday and today, but the unique thing is that they want to keep working and getting better tomorrow. Post-season play is extremely tough, we will need to be prepared."
In their last weekend of regular season play, the Golden Eagles posted shutout victories at Syracuse (1-0) and at St. John's (1-0) to claim its first-ever regular season BIG EAST Championship. The two wins also pushed Marquette's unbeaten streak to seven games entering the BIG EAST Conference Tournament.
Sloan totaled three points and factored in both game-winning goals for Marquette. Sloan scored the game-winning goal, her fourth of the season, in the 1-0 overtime win at Syracuse on Oct. 23. She followed that performance with the game-winning assist of Becky Ryan's goal in the 87th minute in the 1-0 win at St. John's on Oct. 25. Sloan leads the team with 15 points on five goals and five assists. This is her first BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Week award.
Kulla, who has played every minute of every match this season, posted eight saves in the 2-0 weekend highlighted by a season-high seven stops in MU's victory over the Red Storm. The sophomore keeper has a league-leading 13 shutouts, and has not allowed a goal in nearly 569 minutes of play. This is her second career BIG EAST Goalkeeper of the Week honor as she also earned the award on Sept. 22, 2008.
Miller was another integral member of Marquette's defense playing in all 190 minutes. Miller led the defense to allow just 14 shots in the two games. She helped hold Syracuse to just three shots overall and was a key player in MU's shutout of St. John's.
In other Marquette soccer news, the Golden Eagles jumped up to No. 12 in the Soccer America poll released Monday morning. It is MU's highest national ranking since it was ranked No. 11 by Soccer America for the week of Sept. 4, 2006.
With the No. 1 American Division seed in the conference tournament, the Golden Eagles will host the winner of Connecticut (No. 5 American)/ Villanova (No. 4 National) in the quarterfinals at Valley Fields on Sunday, Nov. 1 at 1 p.m.
