Rivalry Week

This week was a big week for us as we played two in-state rivals. First up was Marquette on Wednesday. We knew they would come out with a lot of energy and we would need to match it. The game against Marquette is always a physical, hard-fought game and this was definitely the case this year.

Marquette scored first off of a corner kick in the 21st minute. We answered in the second half when Sperl sent another great free kick into the box. Apple headed back across the box and I slipped it past the Marquette goalie. Our defense played really solid throughout the game and held off the Marquette offense. Regulation time ended in a 1-1 draw so we were headed to overtime. During the first overtime we were literally inches (or centimetres for us Canadians) from scoring to win the game. Kenzie sent a perfect ball over Marquette’s back line for Apple to run on to. Apple headed the ball over the goalie’s head. Unfortunately, the goalie was able to recover and tip the ball onto the crossbar, barely keeping it from crossing the line. The game ended in a tie, but not before the referee suffered an unfortunate hamstring injury causing him to miss most of the second overtime period, and a number of Marquette fouls.

Our second game of the week was against the University of Wisconsin in Madison on Wednesday. A few minutes into the game Apple injured her ankle and needed treatment. There is a substitution rule that if a player exits the game in the first half, they can’t re-enter until the second half. Because of this, we didn’t make a substitution for Apple but played a man down so that she would be able to finish the first half after she got her ankle dealt with. While we were playing a man down, Wisconsin was able to score off a corner kick in the 17th minute. For the rest of the game, we controlled a majority of the possession and dictated the play. However, our attacking was lacking something. We didn’t seem to have that team drive or individual initiative to score goals. The game ended in a disappointing 1-0 loss.
Next weekend we travel to Kansas and Missouri. We’ll try to come away with two wins before our conference play begins.