In terms of up and down, back and forth action, it would seem that Sunday’s women’s soccer between Marquette and Loyola Chicago was not something you’d show to friends to convince them to watch more. Just 19 total shots — 11 for MU, 8 for LUC — between the two teams in 90 minutes, one every 4:45 or so, only seven of the 19 on frame.
And yet, there was inherent drama to the proceedings, largely because Loyola’s Molly Pistorius scored on the Ramblers’ first shot of the match. I can’t embed a video here for
you because LUC didn’t capture it and we can’t expect Marquette to be interested in posting video that isn’t showing their athletes in the best light. With just the one angle on the YouTube broadcast, it’s hard to see what happened for sure when you go back and look at the archived broadcast, but it looks pretty straight forward: A ball played out in front of the net and redirected into the net. That’s soccer, baybay, and it might be a little unlucky that it was on Loyola’s first shot but that’s how it goes.
That early goal generates a tone for the rest of the match, and for a while, that tone was “boy, Marquette’s not getting much of a chance to get back into this.” Shots were 4-3 in favor of the visitors at the half, but after the break, things did start going towards the Golden Eagles. In the second half, Marquette outshot the Ramblers 8-4, but for nearly half an hour, that wasn’t having much of an impact.
Not until Meg Decker and Clare Shea pushed the ball forward and got it to Jocelyn Leigh’s head out in front of the net in the 75th minute. Yes, this is GAME HIGHLIGHTS, but it’s just Leigh’s equalizer.
About as nice of a goal as you’ll see, I think. The only bummer there? Coco Dorfman can’t get an assist for her free kick from midfield, because it’s pretty integral to the entire operation here. Can’t ignore the fact that Leigh’s team high fourth goal of the season came against her former team, as she transferred over from Loyola at the semester break.
Marquette kept the pressure up a bit after Leigh pulled the Golden Eagles even, but they couldn’t punch through for a winner. That moves them to 4-3-1 on the year heading into…
Up Next: Big East play! The Golden Eagles draw Butler to open things up, and they get the Bulldogs at home this coming Saturday at 7pm Central. ESPN+ will have the broadcast there. Butler is 3-1-3 on the year and coming off a 1-1 draw against Drake on Sunday afternoon.
