The Golden Eagles will take on UC Irvine Friday at 8 p.m. CT before playing No. 3 Stanford at 4 p.m. CT.

Thanks to the 2,089 fans who came to Valley Fields last night to watch the Marquette men's soccer team take on Milwaukee in the 2010 regular season opener. Also, thanks to Brian Bowsher, director of marketing and sales, who confirmed these attendance numbers for us. 

Here's a ranking of the top crowds to watch a MU men's soccer game at The Valley since attendance records started to be kept in 2000.

Freshman Honored By College Soccer News

Marquette University freshman midfielder Bryan Ciesiulka of Naperville, Ill., was recently identified among "100 Freshmen From Coast To Coast To Keep An Eye On In 2010" by College Soccer News.

Ciesiulka (pronounced Chi-SHULL-kah) was one of 11 freshmen on the list to be joining a BIG EAST team this fall.

"Another very talented group of newcomers will join the collegiate ranks in 2010," states the online publication. "Only a small percentage of those who play high school or club soccer have the opportunity to play collegiate soccer. CSN congratulates and salutes all of the freshmen who will be joining the collegiate ranks in 2010."

Marquette associate head men's soccer coach emailed us photos that he took during last Friday's Fan Fest at Valley Fields prior to the women's regular-season opener against Idaho State.

Check out the Photo Gallery here.

Marquette University Law School professor Joseph G. Hylton posted to the department's faculty blog today a profile of Claude "Biff" Taugher, a former MU Law School student and former fullback who played for the Green Bay Packers of National Football League.

The blog post is the first part of a two-part series from Hylton on NFL/Marquette alumni. Part two will feature Taugher's law school classmate Laurence "Mac" McGinnis.

Read "From Marquette Law School to the National Football League Part I: Claude Taugher."

All 28 members of the 2010 men's soccer reported to their first team practice at 7 a.m. this morning at Valley Fields.

Conditioning and fitness was the focus of this morning's pracitce followed by another training session at 9:30 a.m. in which attacking drills were introduced. There were also periods of simulated play on a shortened field that began with four players per side and eventually became 6 v. 6, concentrating on defensive shape.

After team lunch the players will have a break until 3 p.m. when they will again assemble in their locker room at Marquette Gym for an hour-long meeting on tactics lead by head coach Louis Bennett. Tactical training is then scheduled from 4:30 p.m. until 6:30 p.m. at The Valley.

There will be a functional training session tomorrow morning and another tactics meeting in the afternoon prior to the squad's annual Blue vs. Gold scrimmage slated for an 8 p.m. kickoff at Valley Fields. There will be free admission and parking for Tuesday's intra-squad match.

Every morning after the team is woken by Markus with one of his one-of-a-kind sayings, everyone has about 15 minutes to get dressed, brush their teeth, put in contacts, etc., before the approximately 1.5 mile trail run. For a normal person (me) who needs water and coffee as soon as I wake up and doesn't always hop out of bed when the alarm goes off, this was a daunting, but doable task.

The goal of the trail run is to get faster each morning you do it. The returners have to match and then beat their times from last season, while the freshmen look to improve their times each morning.

It was an interesting, but definitely not easy trail as the three words I used to describe it were: hilly, muddy and buggy. I thought I hit it reasonably hard and finished with a time of 9:34, which was not bad for my first try. It was also much easier when you have 35 people cheering and encouraging you to finish strong.

Following the run are abdominal work and pushups. Each player gets to lead the team in a 30 second exercise. My turn was last and Ashley Bares whispered to me to say, "bring it in." I did, but it didn't fly with Frank (Pelaez), so we did pushups instead. After we finally "brought it in" it was time for some much needed breakfast and coffee for me.

The team worked on technical skills during the second training session. I sat on the sidelines following the warm-up for most of the session and observed, which in the end sort of hindered me when Markus told me that I had to do a miller.

What is a miller? I asked the same thing. I should have known millers were sprints. I thought I was going to have to do it by myself until Markus told the team I was going to do millers and everyone joined in to do them with me.

Just as they encouraged each other the entire practice, they encouraged me to give it my all during the sprints. It was much easier to do sprints with others than to do them by myself. It proves that no matter what role you play on the team everyone is going to support you. I actually thought the sprints were not too difficult, but with "cold" legs it was tough for me to go all out right away. I think I could maybe do two or three millers (with a two-or-so minute break in between) if asked to.

All in all, I enjoyed my experience at Whitcomb. It might have been too short as when I left I wanted to stay for the rest of the day. Tonight's theme is jersey night and I can only imagine what the team will come out wearing.

I have said the following statement each season I have worked with women's soccer team, "they are a special group of young women." I want them to do well and succeed not just because I work with them on a daily basis, but also because I know how hard they work and how bad they want it.

Note: This is the second part of the a two-part entry as I experienced just short of 24 hours at Camp Whitcomb with the women's soccer team.