Golden Eagles Close Out the Spring Season at Illinois

April 23, 2010

MILWAUKEE - The Marquette women's soccer team will close out its spring season with a pair of matches against Big Ten foes Illinois and Purdue Saturday, April 24 at the Illinois Soccer Stadium in Champaign, Ill.

"The team wants to finish the spring on a high note," said head coach Markus Roeders. "We have had a lot of positives and playing two teams from the Big Ten will be a nice challenge as we wrap-up the game schedule. Playing Illinois and Purdue will be good since they will challenge us in different ways. The team has raised the bar and has improved each weekend of play. I think their mind-set is that they want to win while having fun in the process."

The Golden Eagles will meet the Illini who finished the 2009 season 7-9-3 overall at noon and play NCAA Tournament participant Purdue at 4 p.m. The Boilermakers' (12-6-3) 2009 season ended with a 2-0 loss in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to Central Michigan. Both games will feature full squads and last 70 minutes in length (two 35 minute halves).

The Golden Eagles, who are undefeated with a 5-0-1 spring record, will be without the services of lone returning goalkeeper Natalie Kulla who is at United States U23 Women's National Team Camp for the week. Marquette will rotate several field players in net to compensate.

"Not having Natalie in goal isn't ideal but we will survive by rotating field players to play in net. It's all about turning a negative into a positive," said Roeders.

Led by Ashley Bares with four goals this spring season, the Golden Eagles have had no issues with their attack as they have scored 16 goals in six games, while only allowing four. Along with Bares, Lauren Acree, Rachel Brown and Rachael Sloan have each registered two goals this spring, while Rosie Malone-Povolny, Kristi Laurenzi, Sam Vicker, Lindsey Page, Lisa Philbin and Kerry McBride have each scored one.