Golden Eagles go 1-1 Saturday at Illinois

April 26, 2010

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The Marquette women's soccer team closed out its spring season Saturday afternoon with a 1-0 loss to Illinois and a 2-0 win over Purdue. The loss was the Golden Eagles first of the spring season and they finish 6-1-1 overall.

For both matches, Marquette was without the services of goalkeeper Natalie Kulla, who was in Corvallis, Ore. training with the United States U23 National Team, leaving the Golden Eagles to use a contingent of four different field players, Ashley Stemmeler, Stephanie Vasos, Lauren Acree and Lisa Philbin, in goal.

"Overall, both games proved to be excellent challenges for us and we responded well. We played some great soccer during the Illinois match, but soccer can be a funny game and we ended up on the losing end for the first time this spring. If we would have finished our chances, we could have scored three or four. Considering the weather conditions against Purdue, playing soccer proved difficult, so props again to all the ladies for trying to play our style. A special thanks should go to our four field players who rotated in as goalkeepers on the day. With Natalie being with the U23 National Team again, we managed this situation very well. [Stemmeler], [Acree], [Philbin] and Vasos did great. We definitely have some serious back-up competition for reserve goalie behind Natalie."

The Golden Eagles started off the day with 1-0 setback to Illinois. Nikki Read scored the lone Illini goal in the 11th minute. Marquette created plenty of chances throughout the game, holding a 15-8 shots advantage, but was unable to capitalize on any of those attempts.

Despite the loss, Roeders was pleased with the Golden Eagles' effort.

"Overall it was a good learning experience, and we played a very nice match against Illinois," said Roeders. "Illinois played with three forwards, a formation we hadn't had to play against this spring, and our team made some good adjustments so we could still play our game. The first half was evenly played by both squads, but we dominated the game in the second. We created excellence chances, but their goalie came up big several times. Probably the only thing we can blame ourselves for is not scoring a goal."

Marquette closed out the afternoon with a 2-0 shutout of Purdue. Ashley Bares and Rachael Sloan each scored for the Golden Eagles in the second half.

After the rain poured down for the entire first 35 minutes of play, leaving the Golden Eagles were unable to generate much of an attack, Marquette played arguably its best soccer of the day in the final 20 minutes and scored a pair of goals as a result.

"It was an interesting and challenging first half. The sky opened during our warm-up and it poured rain throughout the first 35 minutes. It was very difficult to play in but give our team a lot of credit because they got improved over the course of the first half and really tried to possess the ball. Overall, it wasn't our best performance until the last 20 minutes of the match when we dominated and the goals were the reward for our hard work," said Roeders.

Bares got the Golden Eagles on the board first with a goal at the 48:19 mark. Lauren Thut served in a free kick and Bares headed it in past Purdue's keeper near post.

Sloan anchored the win with her goal in the 63rd minute when Rachel Brown fed the ball to Sloan who finished her shot far post.

Marquette owned a 9-7 shots advantage for the game against the Boilermakers.

The Golden Eagles will announce its 2010 schedule in the upcoming weeks.

Scoring Summary

Illinois 1, Marquette 0
Goalkeeper: Stemmeler (35:00), Acree (35:00)
Goals
10:37 - ILL - Nikki Read

Marquette 2, Purdue 0
Goalkeeper: Vasos (35:00), Acree/Philbin (35:00)
Goals
48:19 -MARQ - A. Bares (L. Thut)
62:12 - MARQ - R. Sloan (R. Brown)