No. 10 Golden Eagles Head to BIG EAST Tournament Semifinals
11/5/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Nov. 5, 2009
STORRS, Conn. -
For the fourth time in five years, the Marquette women's soccer team (14-4-2) will play in the semifinals of the BIG EAST Tournament on Friday, Nov. 6. The American Division Champion Golden Eagles will take on No. 3 American Division seed West Virginia (9-5-6) at Morrone Stadium in Storrs, Conn., at 5 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast live on CBS College Sports with Ann Schatz and Tammy Blackburn calling all of the action from the pitch.
"Our team is excited to be back at the BIG EAST Championship 'Final Four' site. We have had a great year but his team feels they are not done," said head coach Markus Roeders. "They are motivated and want to keep playing this weekend and deep into postseason. We will face a great opponent in West Virginia and it can't be denied that they have had our number. It will take a big effort on our part to advance to the final on Sunday. Both teams are similar in that they don't allow many goals, and manage to win. It will be a fantastic match just like it was in September. It came down to one play and they took advantage. We will be ready and need to play a complete game tomorrow."
The winner of first semifinal match between Marquette and West Virginia will take on the winner of the second semifinal between Notre Dame (15-3-1) and St. John's (13-5-1) at Noon ET on Sunday, Nov. 8. The tournament champion will earn the league's automatic berth in the 2009 NCAA?Tournament.
The four teams in the semifinal round all had to play quarterfinal matches to earn the trip to Storrs, Conn. Marquette defeated Villanova 1-0 thanks to a Lauren Thut's unassisted strike in the 37th minute. West Virginia went on the road to defeat Rutgers, 1-0, while Notre Dame shut out USF 5-0 and St. John's edged Georgetown in overtime, 1-0. MU is one of two non-original BIG EAST Conference members to advance to the semifinals since the league expanded in 2005. \ Marquette is 4-3 all-time in the BIG EAST Tournament, 0-3 in semifinal action. With Notre Dame earning the No. 1 National Division seed, it will mark the first time the Golden Eagles will not have to play ND in the semifinals. Marquette is 4-3 all-time in BIG EAST Tournament play.
The Golden Eagles (14-4-2) enter the game riding an eight-game unbeaten streak. In the national polls this week, Marquette rose to No. 10 in the Soccer America poll, is receiving votes (No. 27) in the NSCAA poll and stands at No. 23 in the Soccer Times poll.
Sophomore Rachael Sloan leads the Golden?Eagles' attack with 15 points on five goals - four of which are game winners - and five assists. Along with Sloan, 13 additional Golden Eagles have registered at least one goal this season. In Marquette's last five wins, five different players scored a goal, including Ashley Bares, Brittany Bares, Rachael Sloan, Becky Ryan and Lauren Thut.
MU's stifling backline has been superb this season, registering a league-best 14 shutouts. Nationally, the Golden Eagles are No. 5 in team goals against average (0.48), while goalkeeper Natalie Kulla stands at No. 9 with a 0.48 GAA. Kulla has not allowed a goal in over 658 straight minutes, a program record for longest interval between goals allowed.
WVU (9-5-6), who finished third in American Division play with a 5-5-3 BIG EAST mark, stamped their ticket to the BIG EAST Tournament Semifinals by way of a 1-0 win at Rutgers. Similar to the Golden?Eagles, the Mountaineers are very stingy defensively and have posted seven shutouts in their last eight games. Goalkeeper Kerri Butler has allowed just two goals in the last eight games and owns a 0.57 goals against average for the season.
Junior forward Megan Mischler leads WVU's offense with five goals on the season including three game-winners. Blake Miller and Carolyn Blank follow with three goals apiece.
WVU defeated MU in the two teams' regular-season meeting, 1-0, on Sept. 24. Marquette is 0-5 all-time against the Mountaineers.
Roeders' teams are 20-12-1 all-time in conference tournaments. The Golden Eagles captured the Conference-USA Tournament Title in back-to-back seasons in 1999 and 2000. Since 2000, the Golden Eagles have made two appearances in the tournament championship match but have lost.
