2026 Big East Women’s Soccer Tournament
Semifinals
#1 Xavier Musketeers (13-2-3, 7-0-3 Big East) vs #4 Marquette Golden Eagles (7-3-9, 3-2-5 Big East)
Date: Wednesday, November 11, 2026
Time: 4pm Central
Location: Maryland SportsPlex, Boyds, Maryland
Streaming: ESPN+
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast, probably
Bluesky Updates: @AnonymousEagle
Season Series: Xavier won, 2-1
All-Time Series: Marquette leads, 9-7-1
Holy cow, we actually made it.
It’s been over nine years since we put a Big East women’s soccer tournament preview up on this website. The last one was on November 1, 2017 as #4 Marquette faced #1 Georgetown in the semifinals that year. It did not
go well for MU there, as the Hoyas outshot the Golden Eagles 21-3 in a 4-0 blowout. That match was so long ago, head coach Markus Roeders was still two years away from stepping down.
That means we’re over a decade away from seeing Marquette win a postseason contest, as their last one of those was the 2016 Big East semifinals. Carrie Madden scored twice, including in overtime, to beat St. John’s and advance Marquette to the title match that year.
I wanted to make sure we acknowledged the nature of Marquette merely getting to this point of the calendar. We haven’t seen this in a while, and it’s important to tip our cap to head coach Chris Allen and his team to finding their way to the postseason. MU still hasn’t won four matches in Big East play since the fall of 2021, but one step at a time. It got a little dicey at the end, as Marquette hasn’t won a match since beating St. John’s on October 17 to move to 3-0-2 in Big East play and 7-1-6 overall. They’re 0-2-3 since, and that includes a 2-1 loss to the Musketeers to follow up that St. John’s match which was MU’s first loss in Big East play and first since falling to a ranked Baylor team back on September 10th. With that in mind, it’s probably not the worst thing in the world for Marquette that, technically, you don’t have to win this match to advance to Saturday’s conference title game, you just have to stymie Xavier long enough to advance by way of a penalty kick shootout.
And so there’s the problem, right? Xavier scored twice in the first 17 minutes against Marquette in their meeting in Milwaukee this season, gave up a goal to Coco Dorfman in the 28th minute, and then locked the Golden Eagles out of the rest of the match. Marquette generated two more shots in the rest of the first half, and Dorfman’s attempt that missed left in the 50th minute was MU’s last shot attempt of the entire match. Keeper Mia Hurd had to make eight saves in the second half on Xavier’s nine shots to keep MU within shouting distance, but the Golden Eagles kind of couldn’t get the ball within shouting distance of the net on the other end of the field.
Praying that Hurd makes nine more saves — maybe more because overtime will be needed to get to penalty kicks, and then you need saves in PKs — is not a particularly great strategy for Marquette. Overall this year, Xavier is outshooting opponents 15.6 to 8.5 per game, and in Big East play — where no one has beaten them and only three teams tied them — that turns into 15.7 for and just 6.8 attempts against. Getting to the title game will require Marquette to slow down the most potent offense in Big East play and the second most productive overall offense in the entire league this season. Peyton Kohls is second in the Big East in shots per game this season, and that’s gotten her to six goals and six assists on the season for 18 points. That has her tied for the fourth most points in the league, the third most goals, and the second most assists. Frances Reuland is not that far behind Kohls with five goals and six assists, and we have to note that Reuland scored both of XU’s strikes against Marquette in Milwaukee.
At least MU has had one of the better defenses in the conference. They’re tied with Xavier — uh oh — for the third fewest goals given up in conference play, and Marquette has the third fewest goals given up overall this season in the Big East.
If there’s a time to muster up the best possible performance on both ends of the field at the same time, it’s right now.
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