Marquette women’s soccer trailed for the first 89 minutes and 48 seconds of Sunday’s match, until it didn’t.
With 12 seconds left, senior defender Alexa Maletis served a corner kick into the box and senior forward Kate Gibson headed the ball into the back of the net to equalize the game.
Marquette women’s soccer (0-1-1) rallied for a 1-1 draw against the Kansas City Roos (0-0-2) Sunday afternoon in its home opener at Valley Fields.
“Really disappointed in how we started. (We) didn’t play to our culture (or) our identity…”, Marquette head coach Chris Allen said. “But on a day we were honoring Dr. Lovell, it’s pretty cool that we just kept running…
“And to score a goal with 12 seconds left, even though it’s not for a win is a nice tribute to him and what he went through. Keep battling, keep going forward and we did that today.”
Gibson comes through
Gibson’s goal was not only the equalizer, but also marked the Golden Eagles’ first goal of the season.
Marquette rallies for 1-1 draw vs. Kansas City on Kate Gibson’s header with 12 seconds left in regulation.
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— MARQUETTE Soccer (@MarquetteWSOC) August 18, 2024
“It was a perfect ball by Alexa Maletis,” Gibson said. “You can’t ask for a better ball coming in on a corner kick. Really, I didn’t have to do much work. I saw it coming. I kind of blacked out a little. All I thought was, ‘I need to get my head on this.’ It was cool to celebrate with everyone right there.”
Allen said he expected nothing less out of Gibson as a leader and veteran.
“Big players make big plays in big moments, and that’s what she did,” Allen said. “We met this morning at 7:45 a.m. going through everything we need to do, what we need to see more from her. Her going up, winning a header back post with phenomenal service from Alexa — it’s a great goal.”
After only scoring 11 goals as a team last season, Gibson said she believes this could be a glimpse of what’s to come offensively in their next games.
“This change that we’ve had with our coaching staff to really just push it toward the goal and obviously getting a goal here that was a perfect ball and I just had to tap it in — there’s a little bit of a spark there.
“The way we all come together as a team to celebrate shows that. I’m very excited for our next game because once we have one (goal), we’re the type of team to just keep it going.”
Gritty offense fuels the Roos’ first half
From the jump, Kansas City came out aggressively with its first shot coming in the fourth minute of the game.
Marquette’s defense held up until the 41st minute when junior forward Madison Page played a ball through to sophomore forward Ashley Koch who slotted it past sophomore goalkeeper Elise Krone.
“In the first half, we came out a little bit slower, and they took advantage of that,” Gibson said. “We sat in the locker room and talked about, ‘How can we fix this?’ It’s an energy thing, a lot of controllables.”
The Roos tallied seven shots — three of which were on target — and four corner kicks in the first half. Meanwhile, Marquette went into the locker room trailing by one after only taking two shots in the first 45 minutes.
Up next
Marquette will travel to Chicago, Illinois to face Northwestern (1-1) Thursday at 4 p.m. CST.
This story was written by Kaylynn Wright. She can be reached at kaylynn.wright@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @KaylynnWrightMU.