With an autumn chill in the air at Valley Fields for senior night, Marquette women’s soccer snapped its offensive freeze.
The Golden Eagles scored three times more goals in this game than in their past four combined to wrap up its season against Seton Hall with a 3-1 victory.
The Golden Eagles (7-7-4, 3-4-3 Big East) and the Pirates (3-10-5, 0-9-1 Big East) kept it even in the first 40-plus minutes, with the blue & gold having a 9-1 advantage in shots. That was paired with a couple of saves from the Pirates’ sophomore goalkeeper Avery Strohecker, including a diving deflection to stop a Marquette scoring chance.
But Marquette looked to a familiar face to give them a much-needed lift heading into halftime.
Sophomore forward Jocelyn Leigh received a downfield pass from first-year Coco Dorfman and senior Josie Bieda. Leigh booted the ball up and over into the upper left corner of the net for her seventh goal of the season. Marquette head coach Chris Allen said that Leigh’s goal was crucial for building momentum.
“They came back into the game a little bit, when Jocelyn got in, scores a great goal and you could see the air decompress a little bit, so it was an awesome moment,” Allen said.
Marquette doubled its lead in the 71st minute when sophomore Megan Murray lofted the ball into the air, just above the fingers of Strohecker, clanging off of the crossbar and into the goal. Seton Hall got back within one, nine minutes later though as sophomore Olivia Beauvis kicked it through after some commotion in the box.
But senior night needed its signature finish. Senior forward Aislinn Boyle took the dish from Murray, stepped up and found the right side of the net to seal the deal for the Golden Eagles, her first score of the season coming in the closing minutes of her senior night. Boyle said that this high note to end the season meant a lot to her.
“It was awesome, Megan Murray gave me a ‘sitter’, which is amazing because we’re on senior night, it’s just awesome,” Boyle said. “It’s so special, I love this team.
“My five years of playing college soccer, we did a lot of special things this year, so I’m very thankful for the group, and we put on a good show today, which is all you can ask for your last game.”
Allen said that this senior class set a good foundation for which to level its peaks and valleys throughout the season, especially after wrapping up conference action.
“It is going to be our consistency over the duration of a long and grinding Big East season that we are going to look to improve upon in the spring,” Allen said. “I think we proved early in conference play that we were tough to beat and we fought back in a lot of games, so we just went on an unfortunate 14-day stretch where it changed the narrative of the season.
“But I think when we zoom out to perspective, we’re going to be pretty proud of what we accomplished and hungry for more, but I think it was a step in the right direction.”
This article was written by Mikey Severson. He can be reached at michael.severson@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @MikeySeversonMU.