I don’t know if it’s possible for there to have been a better way for Marquette women’s soccer to start the 2025 season. The Golden Eagles hadn’t won a season opener since 2021 before they beat Northern Illinois last week. They haven’t been 2-0-0 to start a campaign since a 3-0-0 start to the timeshifted 2020 season and not in a regular fall season since a 3-0-0 start back in 2012. MU scored two goals in both matches, and they only scored two or more goals in five of their 20 contests all of last year,
Chris Allen’s first in charge of the team. They also shutout both Northern Illinois and North Dakota State after recording just four shutouts in all of 2024, and thanks to a healthy 14-5 differential against NDSU, Marquette is holding onto a 62.9% shot ratio through 180 minutes of soccer.
That’s the stats that tell you that things are looking good for Marquette right now. But they also looked good. We’ll have to wait and see how the whole season shakes out, but for the first 180 minutes of the campaign, the Golden Eagles looked like a team with a clear and coherent view of exactly who and what they are as a squad. Maybe it turns out that they just looked really good against teams that are going to have a rough 2025. That’s possible. But you want to do that, you want to look like you have full control of a match against teams you’re definitely better than, and Marquette did that in their first two matches of the season at the very least.
Hey: NIU beat DePaul 1-0 in their second match of the season, clinging to a first half goal while getting outshot 7-1 after the break, so that’s a solid comparison point to where Marquette is relative to one of their Big East peers.
It even looks like Chris Allen has a lineup that he knows he likes out of the gate. Nine women started both of Marquette’s first two contests, so at first glance, those kinds of roles are settled. Hailey Wade is one of those nine, getting the nod in net both times and she’s played all 180 minutes. Wade is one of three MU players to stay on the field the whole time, with Meg Decker and Clare Shea joining her, both playing defense. Even more interesting there: Both of those two are freshmen, so if they’re going to be mainstays of the backline now, you’re going to be hearing a lot of them for the next four seasons.
Of course, the hardest part about having a good start to the season is keeping it going, and that’s what Marquette will try to do starting on Thursday night…
Match #3: at Milwaukee Panthers (1-1-0)
Date: Thursday, August 21, 2025
Time: 7:30pm Central
Location: Engelmann Stadium, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Streaming: ESPN+
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteWSOC
Marquette is 11-11-9 all time against Milwaukee. Things have been right down the middle of that history since the series restarted after COVID protocols, with UWM winning in 2022, Marquette winning in 2023, and the two sides going to a 1-1 draw a year ago.
Milwaukee had an interesting start to their season after being picked to win the Horizon League in the conference’s preseason poll. They managed to keep #23 Wisconsin off the board for the first half of their opener even though the Badgers outshot them 9-1 in the opening 45 minutes, but once the floodgates opened after the break, it was curtains for the Panthers. UW-Madison got a penalty kick goal in the 51st minute and ended up with a 3-1 victory while outshooting UW-Milwaukee 15-1 in the second half alone. I wonder if the Badgers’ keeper wants that one second half shot back, seeing as it went as a goal for Milwaukee’s Ashlyn Skinner-Barrett?
In their second contest of the season, Milwaukee shelled Northern Iowa on Sunday evening. The final score was 4-0 with two goals coming in the first half and two more coming before the hour mark in the second half. It probably felt worse than that for UNI, as Milwaukee ended up with a 24-7 shot advantage across the entire 90 minutes
Zoey Pagels was the offensive star for Milwaukee in their second contest, scoring the game winner and the third goal, as well. Skinner-Barrett assisted on Pagels’ second goal of the match, and then she got a helper on Natalie Zodrow’s strike in the 57th minute to close out the scoring. That leaves Pagels and Skinner-Barrett tied atop the scoring chart with four points each through two matches, although Pagels does have a team high eight shots.
It seems like Lilly Hanke may have swiped the starting goalkeeper spot. Bella Hollenbach got the start for Milwaukee in their opener against Wisconsin, but she was lifted in favor of Hanke in the 67th minute. That came more than five minutes after Wisconsin’s second goal of the game, so it’s not just letting in the goal that made the difference there. Hanke started and played all 90 minutes against UNI on Sunday, even with the blowout happening, so that sure looks like head coach Kevin Boyd is staying with that decision. As a result of only giving up one of the three goals to Wisconsin and shutting out Northern Iowa, Hanke has a goals-against averaged of 0.79 and a save percentage of .875 after 113 minutes of action.
Match #4: vs Wisconsin Badgers (2-0-0)
Date: Sunday, August 24, 2025
Time: 6pm Central
Location: Valley Fields, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Streaming: ESPN+
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteWSOC
Marquette is 5-10-2 all time against Wisconsin. The Golden Eagles have not picked up a W in the series since a 1-0 contest in the 2005 NCAA tournament, and it’s been nothing but losses in the four meetings since a 2-2 draw in the 2010 NCAA tournament went in MU’s favor in penalty kicks. That includes a 1-0 loss in 2023 after starting goalie Mikki Easter took on a straight red card in the 37th minute as the most recent entry in the series.
Wisconsin lived up to their preseason #23 ranking in their first two matches of the season. They stomped through Milwaukee in their opener as discussed above in the UWM preview section, both in terms of goals and shots for/against. Their Sunday evening visit to Illinois-Chicago for Match #2 was a bit more on the dicey side of things, but I doubt that head coach Paula Wilkins is particularly bothered by “only” winning 1-0 when the Badgers outshot the Flames 13-2 overall and didn’t allow a single official shot after the 38 minute mark.
Four different women have all tallied a goal to this point of the year for Wisconsin, and none of them have either of UW’s two assists on the season, so all of the points are spread out as far as possible right now. Anya Gulbrandsen and Ashley Martinez look to be the focal points of the offense through two matches, as they have scratched together nine and eight shots respectively. That’s 17 of Wisconsin’s 37 total shots, so that’s a pretty healthy chunk of the action.
Drew Stover has taken all 180 minutes in net and has only faced three shots on goal so far this season. Objective #1 for Marquette is to make that SOG number jump way up by the end of business on Sunday. Stover finished last season with a goals-against averaged of 0.94 and a save percentage of .765, so it would seem the hardest part of scoring against her is getting the shot off on frame in the first place.
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