Marquette women’s soccer sophomore defender Ida Marhaug’s love for soccer began as a child, watching the Norway Cup — a global youth soccer tournament in which teams from all over the world would travel to her hometown of Oslo, Norway to compete.
Soccer also has a strong background in her family. With Marhaug playing the game as early as 5 years old, she competed all throughout her upbringing in Oslo, and her parents even coached some of her youth games.
Now, that passion has fueled Marhaug on her own international journey to the United States for her collegiate experience, and it has led her to find not one, but two flocks of Golden Eagles.
She started her collegiate career in Division II at the University of Charleston, in West Virginia. As a first-year defender, she started every game for the Golden Eagles and helped lead them to both the conference and NCAA tournament. She was named to the All-Mountain East First Team and the Mountain East’s all first-year team in Charleston.
Marhaug said that her thought process was about the balance of relationships and competition when entering the transfer portal.
“I had a great year at Charleston, I was mainly entering the portal for new opportunities to enter a higher-level soccer wise,” Marhaug said. “But for me the group of the people I’m going to spend time with within the team and coaching staff is the most important and that’s how Marquette stood out.”
Marquette head coach Chris Allen said that when recruiting Marhaug out of the portal, her character and game strategy stood out to him.
“She checked the box first and foremost from a cultural standpoint from a cultural fit, she’s sweet, kind, compassionate, all the things you want when coaching a player,” Allen said. “Then I think her best skillset for us is her attacking prowess, her passing and ability to change the point. She sees the game really well and brings a level of sophistication a little bit.”
After her first season of collegiate soccer, she played in the summer for South Georgia Tormenta FC, competing in the USL W League, while also spending some time back in her hometown of Oslo, Norway, before heading to Marquette.
Marhaug said that the team spirit in the university setting was something that intrigued her. Being able to take in a new experience were factors in driving her decision to pursue a collegiate opportunity in the United States.
“On the soccer side, at home, they don’t really combine university and college sports, so I find it very cool,” Marhaug said. “That’s why I went here because I felt like I still wanted to play soccer, get a good education, see more of the world and new places.”
Junior midfielder Capri Oliviero was the first Marquette teammate to meet Marhaug, picking her up from the airport. Showing Marhaug around her new home was a full-circle moment for Oliviero, who herself moved from Canada to the Milwaukee area at 5 years old.
“I love showing people around Milwaukee, but it was definitely special to get to be the person that gave her the tour of Milwaukee experience to start and I think that sparked our friendship,” Oliviero said.
As a sophomore, Marhaug has played in most of the Golden Eagles’ contests this season, including going the full 90 minutes in the crosstown matchup at Milwaukee and against Loyola Chicago in a tough 1-1 draw. A milestone is that her parents will come to watch her play for the first time in the United States when Marquette faces St. John’s Wednesday, and DePaul three days later on Saturday.
“This is their first time seeing me play live in America,” Marhaug said. “They are following on the streaming services usually. Sometimes the time difference is very big, but I know sometimes they stay up late and watch me at night. They’re very supportive, my biggest fans.”
She also added that her mentality leading up to this point has been one of continued growth and habits as her journey rolls on.
“I hope that we can put on a good game, I hope that they can see that I’m taking new heights, but also that they can still see that I’ve kept up my habits, my traits since when I was playing (in Norway),” Marhaug said.
This article was written by Mikey Severson. He can be reached at michael.severson@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @MikeySeversonMU.