WSOC hosts Creighton Sunday at Valley Fields

MILWAUKEE – The Marquette University women's soccer team hosts Creighton in BIG EAST Conference action on Sunday, Oct. 6 during Marquette Homecoming Week at Valley Fields.

Sunday's 1 p.m. match against the Bluejays will air live on GoMarquette.com's All-Access player with a broadcast produced by the Marquette Wire, MU's student-run media organization.

Marquette played to a scoreless draw at Creighton in 2018 and is 5-3-2 all-time against the Bluejays.

Following this week's action, the Golden Eagles head to the East Coast for matches at St. John's and Seton Hall on Thursday, Oct. 10 and Sunday, Oct. 13, respectively.

MARQUETTE (3-8-0): The Golden Eagles fell 3-0 at No. 12 Georgetown in their BIG EAST opener on Sunday, Sept. 29 and 2-1 in double overtime on Thursday night to Providence … MU doubled its season scoring output heading into the match against the Hoyas on Sept. 20-22 with a 2-1 double overtime loss to NIU and a 2-1 victory over Colorado State … Prior to that, two of MU's three goals had come in 1-0 wins over Michigan and Minnesota … Five of its first seven games overall were decided 1-0 … MU earned its first win of the season on Sept. 1, courtesy of Kylie Sprecher's 108th minute goal in double overtime … Sprecher's score was MU's first goal of the year, ending a stretch of 379:36 to start the year without a tally … Freshman Josie Kelderman scored the winner in the 1-0 victory at Minnesota on Sept. 5 but MU was outshot 13-4 … Sophomores Alyssa Bombacino and Macey Shock scored MU's two goals in the Sept. 22 win over Colorado State.

LAST TIME OUT: Freshman Alex Campana scored the equalizer in the 80th minute but Providence tallied a 2-1 victory in double overtime on a 106th minute score by Elayna Grillakis … The two squads each fired 12 shots in the match, though the Friars posted a 4-1 edge in extra time, including the Grillakis marker … Marquette fell to 11-3-2 all-time against PC and has lost each of the last three meetings.

CREIGHTON (7-3-0): The Bluejays fell 3-1 at Xavier on Thursday night in their BIG EAST road opener … Freshman Skylar Heinrich scored the lone goal for Creighton in the 38th minute after the Musketeers had opened a 2-0 lead … CU began BIG EAST play with a 2-0 victory over DePaul on Sunday in Omaha as goalkeeper Katie Sullivan posted her third shutout of the season … Sullivan was named the league's goalkeeper of the week on Monday … Heinrich leads CU with nine goals after potting a pair against the Red Storm, and one at Xavier, and sits second in the BIG EAST … The Bluejays were picked to finish ninth in the league's preseason poll, one spot behind Marquette.

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING…
Freshman Alex Campana on Thursday's loss to Providence: "It was really even. It was a tough game, a back-and-forth battle everywhere on the field. It was a really, really, good game, we just couldn't get the result that we wanted. (Scoring on Thursday) is a nice little relief, it's like 'on to the next.' We just have to put this game in the past as much as it stinks and move on to the next one on Sunday."

Senior defender Emily Hess: "Throughout the season we've gotten better and better at what we've wanted to do. Even with Colorado State, putting together a full 90-minute game was good for us. Building off that and trying to build that consistency into BIG EAST play will be really important for us. Taking what we've learned from the first half of the season and implementing that in BIG EAST play will be important in making sure we execute and finish the chances we have. For Providence, its always a pretty close game and set pieces come into play a lot in those sorts of games. In terms of Creighton, I think it is giving that little extra push and executing for us to earn a result."

SHOCK SPARKS THE MU OFFENSE
• Sophomore Macey Shock played her first two matches of the season on the weekend of Sept. 20 and provided a needed offensive spark for the Golden Eagles. MU had scored just three goals entering the match against NIU and Shock scored two of MU's three goals on the weekend against the Huskies and Colorado State. Shock's first career goal in the 87th minute pushed the match against NIU to overtime and she provided the equalizer in the eventual win over the Rams in the 77th minute.

GOLDEN EAGLES BEGIN 15TH BIG EAST SEASON
• Marquette played its first season as a BIG EAST member in 2005 and is in its 15th year of conference action. The Golden Eagles have accumulated a record of 97-33-13 in BIG EAST action, which includes six regular season conference titles and a pair of tournament championships in 2012 and 2013. MU went a remarkable 39-1-1 in BIG EAST play in the four seasons from 2010-13.

CONTINUAL CHANGES IN STARTING LINEUP
• Marquette head coach Markus Roeders has used a different starting lineup for 10 of the 11 matches so far in 2019. Senior defender Bri Jaeger is the only player to have started every contest, while Kylie Sprecher, Maddy Henry, Emily Hess and Katrina Wetherell have started all but one match. The Sept. 29 game at Georgetown was the first time this season that MU used a lineup it had used previously.

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