With the loss of last year’s leading scorer Tess O’Connell and 11 other players, Marquette women’s soccer’s offense was a big focal point going into this season.
But, after its 1-0 win against UW-Milwaukee Thursday thanks to graduate student Molly Keiper’s first career goal, its had its best start in a regular fall season since 2012. The Golden Eagle offense kept the Panthers on their heels all night and through the chaos, they found their success.
“I feel very proud,” Marquette head coach Chris Allen said. “The kids put in the work over the summer. They came in ready to play. They hold themselves to a really, really high standard and I think you’re starting to see the fruits of the labor that went into it.”
Within the first 15 minutes, the Panther offense played conservatively and spent a lot of time in possession of the ball. Though, Marquette’s defense stood strong through three Milwaukee shots — all of which missed the net — and didn’t allow anything to test starting sophomore goalie, transfer Hailey Wade.
The name of the Golden Eagles’ game tonight was causing chaos every time they found themselves with the ball at their feet. It’s exactly what they did when they had the chance.
Similarly to how Josie Bieda scored the team’s first goal only seven minutes into the first game of the season, Marquette focused on fast breaks to get them deep in Panther territory.
Twenty-one minutes in, Bieda was dribbling towards the goal while Panther goalkeeper, Lilly Hanke, charged the ball. Bieda took the shot 15 feet outside the box, but the ball deflected off Hanke at the edge of the box and flew into the air. Hanke touched the ball on its was down outside of the box and was issued a red card.
For the free kick, Keiper took the shot and slotted it past a diving Hanke into the left side of the net.
21’ | MU – 1 | UWM – 0
Following a red card on the UWM keeper for a hand ball, senior Molly Keiper buries the free kick for the game’s first goal! pic.twitter.com/LUrzNm8yP2
— MARQUETTE Soccer (@MarquetteWSOC) August 22, 2025
With the red card, Milwaukee would play a woman down for the rest of the night.
“Josie Bieda caused the chaos,” Allen said, “that truly began to change the game.
“It’s better to play ugly than lose pretty. I love this about our team. That we can be resilient enough to find a way to win on an opponent’s field, at a very difficult place, against an NCAA tournament team.”
The chaos continued late into the first half which saw all of the Golden Eagle’s first five shots be on goal and Milwaukee go shotless for over 17 minutes.
At the beginning of the second half, Milwaukee owned the ball on Marquette’s end of the field and, in the 55th minute, got a free kick opportunity twenty feet outside the box. The shot flew straight into the hands of Wade to keep her clean sheet intact.
Only a minute later, another Panther fast break forced Wade to dive onto the ball close to the net before an attacker could get to it.
Maybe it was the close calls at net or coach Allen constantly yelling from the sidelines, but the Golden Eagles started to wake up.
“We bend, but we don’t break,” Allen said.
By the time the buzzer rang at Engelmann Stadium to signal the Golden Eagles’ win, Marquette had committed 15 fouls compared to Milwaukee’s six.
Talk about chaos.
Up next
Marquette will welcome its second in-state opponent of the week, No. 21 Wisconsin to Valley Fields on Sunday, Aug. 24. Kickoff will be at 6 p.m. CST and the game broadcast on ESPN+.
This recap was written by Benjamin Hanson. He can be reached at benjamin.hanson@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @benhansonMU.