The Wisconsin men’s soccer team dropped a 3-0 loss to in-state rival Marquette in the final game of UW’s regular season Saturday.
Fresh from clinching the Conference USA title, the Golden Eagles’ Chris Lee tallied two goals and teammate Derek Gutierrez scored Marquette’s third goal on a penalty kick. Wisconsin goalkeeper Eric Hanson posted two saves on the day. The Badgers’ strongest scoring opportunity occurred on a late penalty kick in the 73rd minute by Valentine Anozie, but MU keeper Adam Ubert denied the UW goal.
Lee opened up scoring for the Golden Eagles in the 31st minute after the Wisconsin defense missed clearing a cross in front of the net from Marquette’s Tony Walby. Lee found the ball eight yards out and directed it toward the back of the net for the 1-0 lead. The MU forward scored his second goal just under three minutes into the second period off a high-lobbed ball from teammate Eric Marshall to claim the 2-0 advantage.
Anozie’s penalty kick could have cut the Golden Eagles’ lead to 2-1 after the senior co-captain fired the ball toward the left back post, but Ubert got a hand on the ball just before it crossed the goal line to ensure the MU shutout.
Marquette capitalized on its own penalty kick just 10 seconds later for the 3-0 lead and eventual win.
Now 9-9-0 overall with a 3-3-0 record in the Big Ten, Wisconsin travels to the Big Ten Championship next week at Penn State in University Park, Pa. With just one game left in Big Ten Conference action (Ohio State vs. Northwestern, Nov. 10), there is currently a four-way tie for second place in the conference standings with Michigan, Penn State, Wisconsin and Michigan State all holding 3-3 records.
If the Buckeyes defeat Northwestern, there will be a five-way tie, and seedings for the championship will be determined by each team’s number of goals scored in conference play. Official seedings will be released by the Big Ten Monday, Nov. 11 and will be available on www.uwbadgers.com, in addition to all of the Badgers’ results and statistics from next week’s Big Ten Championships.
–compiled from staff reports