The No. 4 Georgetown women’s soccer team (13-0-2, 6-0 Big East) travel to Wisconsin to take on Marquette (3-10-2, 1-4-1 Big East) on Thursday. The Hoyas will look to add to their 12-game game win streak and keep their perfect Big East record.
The Hoyas have been dominant of late, having not so much as drawn a game since their August 23rd matchup against No. 10 Duke (11-2-2, 5-1-1 ACC). Offensively, the Hoyas are led by senior forward Caitlin Farrell, who has notched 14 goals thus far on the season, and has scored for Georgetown in each of its last nine games, including the game winners in the two most recent games against Providence (8-5-2, 2-3-1 Big East) and Villanova (9-6, 3-3 Big East). Graduate student Kyra Carusa has been another offensive weapon for the Hoyas with six goals and seven assists for 19 points.
The Georgetown defense is anchored by senior goalkeeper Arielle Schechtman, who has only allowed three goals in 13 games, and boasts a .948 save percentage. She is joined by senior defender Jenna Staudt, who was named Big East Defender of the week on Monday.
Marquette, on the other hand has struggled this season, despite being a historically dominant team in the Big East. The Golden Eagles suffered early losses to powerhouses in Duke and No. 3 North Carolina (12-2-1, 7-0 ACC) and have been unable to get back on track since.
“You can only lose so many [games against top teams] until our message of ‘hey we’re measuring ourselves against the best’ starts to lose its value and the kids just start to lose confidence because they’re losing,” Georgetown head coach Dave Nolan said of Marquette’s down season. “They would strike me as a team that’s probably a bit brittle in confidence, but all they need is one result or one moment per game to turn things around.”
The Golden Eagles have been led thus far by freshman forward Alyssa Bombacino, who has three goals on the season. Redshirt senior forward Carrie Madden, who led the team with 19 points on 4 goals and 7 assists in 2017 has only scored twice for Marquette in her final campaign. Yet despite their below-average record, the Golden Eagles have the potential to threaten the Hoya’s perfect Big East record.
“I’ve watched some of their games, and they’ve been extremely unlucky,” Nolan said. “They’re certainly not as bad as their record indicates and it’s a dangerous team…it’s a team that probably their best soccer is in front of them.”
Kickoff is set for 8 p.m. ET in Milwaukee. The game can be streamed on Big East Digital Network, and live stats can be found on guhoyas.com. Follow @GUVoiceSports on Twitter for more women’s soccer coverage and coverage of Georgetown sports.
