Nov. 20, 2010

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - The No. 12/9 Marquette University women's soccer team saw its season come to a close in a 3-0 loss at No. 11/15 Florida State in the NCAA Championship Third Round Saturday afternoon at the FSU Soccer Complex. The Golden Eagles finish the season 16-5-3, while Florida State improves to 16-5-1 and advances to play Stanford in the NCAA Tournament Quarterfinals.

"This is a difficult moment for us because our season ended today," said head coach Markus Roeders. "We have tremendous pride for our program and our team because they left everything out there today. I actually thought we played a real good game, except the ball bounced funny a couple of times. Florida State is very good team and they took advantage of us. After the early goal in the first half, I think our team showed, as they have showed so many times, that they are resilient. They didn't give up and we were just working towards getting the goal and tying the game. It just never really happened. At 2-0 we lost some of our play and then got stretched at the end. I don't think the score is necessarily indicative of how the game went and how our team played. I think more than anything we had such a wonderful year and we would have loved a chance to keep moving forward. But, this loss won't take away from what we have done this year and how proud I am of our team, especially our seniors. They have put so much time, effort and energy into our program and really help it reach another level. Just a lot of credit to our team without taking anything away from Florida State."

For the game, Marquette had the edge in the shots column, 16-12, putting seven of those attempts on goal. Goalkeeper Natalie Kulla played the entire 90 minutes and made four saves in the loss. The Golden Eagles were awarded five corner kick opportunities but were unable to convert.

Rachel Lim, Ella Stephan and Breezy Hupp each tallied for the Seminoles who move on to the NCAA Championship Quarterfinals for the fifth straight season.

The Seminoles scored their first goal in the eighth minute. Lim got past two Golden Eagles before she dished the ball off to Kassey Kallman on the wing. Kallman fed the ball back to Lim and she buried her shot high to the right corner out of reach for Kulla.

Following the score, Ashley Bares nearly put MU on the board in the 13th minute with a shot the skimmed the crossbar, while Rachael Sloan's attempt in the 29th minute was saved by Kelsey Wys. Cara Jacobson's shot late in the first half off a corner kick by Stephanie Vasos was cleared off the goal line by a Florida State defender.

The Golden Eagles finished the first half with a 7-4 shots advantage.

Stephan made it 2-0 in favor of FSU in the 55th minute. After Marquette was whistled for a foul, Toni Pressley took the free kick and served in to the 18-yard box where Tori Huster got her head on it and directed it on goal. Stephan followed up and knocked it in over Kulla for the score.

The Golden Eagles continued to work for their first goal and Kate Reigle almost capitalized in the 65th minute with a header off a short serve by Lindsey Page. Wys, who was positioned near the far post, was able to swat the ball with one hand out of play.

Wys finished the day with five saves, while the Seminole defense was credited with two stops, including one late in the second half on a Marquette corner kick.

Breezy Hupp iced the win with her goal in the 83rd minute.

Game Notes

• Marquette moves to 1-1 all-time against Florida State.

•Marquette is 6-7-3 all-time in NCAA Tournament action, 0-2 in third round games.

•Marquette's 16 wins are the most since the team won 19 games in the 2005 season. Under Markus Roeders, the Golden Eagles have never suffered a losing season.

• Marquette outshot its opponent for the 20th time this season and finish 14-5-1 in those contests this season.

•The three goals against tie the most the Golden Eagles have allowed all season.