Marquette’s women’s soccer team seems to have DePaul’s number, having won three straight against their conference rivals heading into last Thursday’s matchup. Once again, Blue Demons came up short, falling 3-2 to the Golden Eagles in the team’s Big East opener. 

From the jump, Marquette dominated the time of possession, peppering shot after shot on DePaul senior goalkeeper Elena Milam. Milam and her defense stood stout early, denying any opportunity Marquette made for themselves.

“It was a rough beginning, but we just needed to stay calm, composed, and connect passes,” junior defender Grace Phillpotts said. “When we do that we are fine”.

DePaul’s ‘bend-but-don’t-break’ defensive attitude allowed their offense to take over. At the 17:47 mark, DePaul took an early 1-0 lead thanks to some beautiful coordination. After a throw-in, senior forward Kristin Boos was able to feed sophomore forward Katie Godden who, after beating the defense, landed a perfect snipe top right corner of the net.

“It comes [from the] training ground,” Boos said. “Katie [Godden] and I have been connecting a lot over the last week. I told her even before the game that you and I are going to connect. I am going to find you and you’re going to score, and it happened.”

From there, DePaul regained its composure and slowly started to create more opportunities for themselves. Godden continued her momentum, once again beating the defense, but this time missing wide right.

Miscues were the name of the game for DePaul on Thursday, and their lead was short-lived. On a corner kick at the 29:35 mark, Marquette’s sophomore midfielder Mia Haertle tied the game at one.

“It was a terrible corner kick to even give up in the first place,” DePaul head coach Michele O’Brien said. “A bad clearance from our back to give up a bad corner.”

Sometimes a blunder can wreck a team’s composure, but DePaul was able to shake it off and entered halftime tied 1-1 despite being outshot 6-2.

After an impressive first half, DePaul faltered in the second, with miscues once again being a factor. A penalty by junior defender Grace Phillpotts at the 55:18 mark led to a Marquette penalty shot. Junior midfielder Isabella Cook was able to bury it to give the Golden Eagles a 2-1 lead. But Marquette was not done, scoring their third and final goal at the 62:58 mark. This time thanks to sophomore midfielder Julia O’Neil.

Facing a two-goal deficit, DePaul was able to bring themselves within one at the 80:53 mark off the back of a penalty kick of their own. Freshman defender Lina Dantes was able to draw a penalty against the Marquette goalie, leading Boos to score her first goal of the game. This was also her first two points of the season.

“As a senior player, it was great for Boos to get on the board with two points,” O’Brien said. “Then obviously stepping up and taking a PK in an important moment is critical for our team.”

Over the last nine minutes, DePaul was able to take their game to an extra gear, continually creating open looks for themselves. Unfortunately, Marquette’s sophomore goalkeeper Chloe Olson stood firm, crushing the Blue Demons’ last-ditch comeback effort. 

In the first Big East game of the year for the two teams, physicality was the theme of the evening, with tensions growing at times. 

“Marquette is a big rivalry,” Boos said. “In my last three years, this is my fourth time playing them and it is definitely very chippy. Big East is very physical. Division One Soccer is very physical. That is what we expect going into Big East and especially against Marquette. It was definitely heightened because it was our home opener.”  

DePaul (2-6, 0-1) will be back in action on Sunday, Sept. 25 for a road matchup against their conference rival Xavier (7-2-1, 1-0) with first touch set for noon CST.

“I have high expectations for myself and my teammates,” Boos said. “We scored two very good goals. We are dangerous. We just need to play a full 90-minutes together.”