Oct. 13, 2006

Box Score

MILWAUKEE - On a night dedicated to its six seniors, the Marquette women's soccer team got its two goals from members of that class as Meghan Connelly and Lauren Weber each tallied to help Marquette top long-time foe Cincinnati, 2-0, Friday evening at Valley Fields. With the win, the Golden Eagles improve to 6-5-4 overall and 4-3-1 in the BIG EAST.

"This is a good win for us over a team we have a lot of history with," said head coach Markus Roeders. "It was great to have the seniors contribute on senior night. We walk away tonight with being satisfied with the win. We are one more step forward of where we want to be in the next few weeks."

As most of the action was played in the midfield in the first half, both teams were unable to finish any of the attempts either created. One of Marquette's best chances came early in the half as Connelly fed the ball to senior forward Allison Loughrin in the middle which she carried to challenge the Cincinnati's keeper, Andrea Kaminski. Loughrin got her shot off, but it went just wide.

"We played too conservative in the first half," said Roeders. "After the first 10 minutes our midfielders dropped back and we had to play out of the back. We had some chances, but we were just one pass short."

Cincinnati out shot Marquette for the first half 7-6 including a 5-3 shots on goal advantage, but Marquette got the better of the Bearcats in the second stanza launching 10 shots, four of which were on goal compared to five second half shots from Cincinnati with just two on goal. Marquette's backline was to thank for that as the Golden Eagles were able to knock down the Bearcat attack.

The Golden Eagles regrouped and came out in the second half fired up. Their intensity paid off as Marquette was able to notch two second half goals to grab the victory.

The first goal came at the 57:24 mark as sophomore defender Katie Kelly served a long ball down the right side for Connelly who hopped on it on her first strike to put it past Bearcat keeper, Andrea Kaminski.

"I was really excited about that goal," said Connelly. "We just wanted to come out here and get the job done tonight and win. We needed to step up and hopefully this will be the start of a very long win streak."

Marquette secured the win about 20 minutes later when Connelly served the ball in to the middle to the foot of Loughrin. Loughrin immediate dished it to Weber who knocked it in.

"We talked at halftime that we had to get there. In the second half we just had much better flow."

For the game junior goalkeeper Laura Boyer made five saves in over 84 minutes in net. Marquette subbed in sophomore goalkeeper Christy Smith with just over five minutes remaining in the game. The Golden Eagles played 24 players in the game.

The Golden Eagles return to action Sunday afternoon when they take on No. 17 Louisville at Valley Fields. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m.