Aug. 24, 2008

Box Score

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MILWAUKEE - The Marquette women's soccer team won its fourth straight season opener Sunday night at Valley Fields in the form of a 1-0 decision over Loyola (Ill.). Junior Kelly Wepking was credited with the game winner, her first career goal as a Golden Eagle.

"We definitely worked for the game, and we'll take the win," said head coach Markus Roeders. "Wins are hard to earn, and our hard work got us the result tonight. Give credit to Loyola. We expected a tough game and Loyola came out and played very determined."

The Golden Eagles struggled to find a rhythm in the first half of their season debut. Both Marquette and Loyola were even, 5-5, in the shots column, but the Ramblers had the shots on goal advantage, 2-0. Redshirt freshman goalkeeper Natalie Kulla started the game in net and made two saves.

"For us, it was tough to get a good rhythm at the start, but it was kind of expected due to the turnover in our squad. I thought as the game went on we played better, we possessed better and our spacing was better," said Roeders.

Marquette's best opportunity of the first frame came in the 28th minute when sophomore Lauren Acree fed freshman Danielle Martens a ball up the middle leaving Martens to go one-on-one with Loyola's keeper, Katie Groesch. Groesch denied Martens' chance by knocking it away at the top of the box.

About four minutes later, the Ramblers had an opportunity to get on the board when Kulla was given a yellow card for her tackle outside of the box. Loyola's Cynthia Morote-Ariza had breakaway when Kulla challenged the play and tackled Morote-Ariza. However, MU's trademark defense swallowed Morote-Ariza's subsequent shot.

The Golden Eagles finally capitalized in the 79th minute when Wepking's shot was deflected off a Rambler defender into the back of the net.

"Kelly's goal was very opportunistic from the standpoint of taking the shot and having it deflected in the goal. As the game went on we played a lot better and created opportunities," added Roeders.

Loyola made its final push in the final minutes of the game putting one shot on target and being awarded three free kicks in Marquette territory.

For the game, Kulla and junior transfer Chelsey Turner each played 45 minutes in goal and combined for four saves. Playing time was plentiful Sunday evening as 22 Golden Eagles saw action, including six newcomers.

The Golden Eagles return to action on Friday, Aug. 29 at Valley Fields, for an afternoon matinee match against Ohio State at 3:30 p.m.