Molly Keiper summed up how she is approaching her final Marquette women’s soccer season with one word: gratitude.
It’s a word of so much importance to the graduate student defender that, before every game, she writes it on a piece of tape and wears it on her wrist.
“Just as a reminder to enjoy every moment, to be grateful for another opportunity to end it on a more positive note, doing the thing I love, at the place I love,” Keiper said.
After suffering a partial tear of her posterolateral corner in her right knee in August 2024 during preseason training, the defender ended up having to miss the entire 2024 campaign due to the setback, but this challenge presented her with a unique opportunity to grow. Keiper, a Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin native, has been with Marquette since her sophomore year, starting in the 2022 season after spending her first year at Villanova.
Head coach Chris Allen stated that her mentality and attitude never faded during the 2024 campaign, which was his first season at the helm, showcasing Keiper’s resilience through adversity and being a source of positivity for the team, despite the challenging circumstances.
“I think that she brings the word ‘uncompromising’ to life; she walks in a room and the energy changes immediately,” Allen said.
She resumed practicing at full speed in February, albeit with a brace on her right leg for spring games. As part of the team’s foreign tour in Italy, Keiper played her first competitive game since the injury, which was something the team rallied behind.
“We were talking about it, leading up to the tour, how special it was, her parents came out to Italy to see her first game back,” graduate student forward Aislinn Boyle said. “It was great; you would never know that she had a serious injury, which is something that people worry about a lot when having that experience, is people having to tell that you went through that, but you couldn’t tell at all.”
Keiper grew up going to Marquette women’s soccer matches as a kid, specifically Marquette versus UW-Milwaukee games.
She played her high school soccer at Whitefish Bay High School, which is roughly three miles from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Engelmann Stadium. When the Golden Eagles traveled across town to face the Panthers on Aug. 21, senior Josie Bieda’s fast break towards the Panthers’ goal led to a free kick opportunity for the Golden Eagles, with Keiper being the one to take the shot.
She found the upper left corner of the net, above a diving Lilly Hanke in net for the Panthers. It was the only goal of the match for either side. While it felt full-circle to Keiper, she said that the support of her teammates helped sweeten the moment.
“It’s everybody around you, they feel like they’re the one scoring the goal because how excited they are for you and take the step up for the team,” Keiper said. “I wouldn’t have had that opportunity to score that goal without Josie Bieda drawing that foul, then she’s the first one to give me the biggest hug, picks me up off the ground to celebrate.”
As a 10-year-old, Keiper received a signed poster of Marquette women’s soccer that she hung above her bed, which her parents still have. Now, she’s the one signing them with ‘gratitude.’
“So that full circle moment of when I was the little girl, those college players were the people I had dreamed to be, and I thought they were the coolest people in the world,” Keiper said. “I thought they were celebrities; then now to be the one that’s on the other end of that is a really cool feeling, and another thing that I have incredible gratitude to have this opportunity to do.”
This article was written by Mikey Severson. He can be reached at michael.severson@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @MikeySeversonMU.