When I tuned in a little bit late to the Marquette women’s soccer match on Thursday night, it turns out I missed less than I was expecting to miss. The Milwaukee men’s team match had run long, so Marquette/Milwaukee didn’t start until 20 minutes later than originally announced, which was good news for YA MANS when it comes to keeping an eye on both teams on this night.
Not long after I tuned in, Milwaukee keeper Lilly Hanke made a crucial mistake, one you can not make if you’re a keeper. She wandered
outside the margins of the 18 yard box and into the field of play to bat away a ball from MU’s Josie Bieda with her hands, not her feet. The ref saw it immediately, and that’s a straight red card. That sent Hanke to the locker room in the 21st minute and left Milwaukee with only 10 women for the remainder of the match.
It also left backup keeper Bella Hollenbach to jump off the bench cold and defend a free kick by MU’s Molly Keiper from about 20 yards out as a result of the foul on Hanke. That’s a big spot for a woman who did not have a single goal to her collegiate name before Thursday night, but there was never a doubt about whether this kick worked.
1-0 Marquette in the 21st minute, and the Golden Eagles get to play with an extra woman for the rest of the way.
That sounds like a tremendous setup for a story about how many goals Marquette scored for the remaining 69 minutes, but nope. That was it. In fact, Milwaukee was outshooting Marquette for most of the second half, and only a flurry of three shots with less than nine minutes left helped push MU to an overall shots advantage of 7-5 after the break and 15-10 overall across 90 minutes. Large chunks of this game did not feel like UWM was that close to Marquette, but they were, both on the scoreboard and in other ways.
Still, that’s 1-0 for Marquette, and 12-11-9 all time against Milwaukee. This win extends their 2025 record to 3-0-0 and extends the shutout streak to start the season to 27o consecutive minutes. Hailey Wade played all 90 minutes for her third straight shutout to start 2025.
Up Next: Marquette returns from the East Side to host #21 ranked Wisconsin on Sunday. First kick is set for 6pm Central. The Badgers moved to 3-0 on the season after beating Central Michigan 4-0 on Thursday evening in Madison.
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