MILWAUKEE — It may have taken three years, but Marquette finally got its revenge.
Three seasons after Wisconsin escorted Marquette out of the NCAA Tournament with a 3-2 victory in Milwaukee, the No. 12 Golden Eagles (17-3-1) returned the favor, defeating the No. 24 Badgers 1-0 in front of 1,626 people at Valley Fields in Milwaukee Friday evening.
"I think it was just a classic great game between two great teams, exciting, but we just did not make things go our way as well," head coach Dean Duerst said. "In games like this, you say big players have got to step up and play, but I think our big player was our team today. We just didn't all find it as a team today and that's how games are won and lost sometimes."
The loss marked the end of an era for six Badger seniors including Erin Dubina and Becky Katsma, as well as captains Amy Vermeulen, Katy Lindenmuth, Jessica Ring and Marisa Brown.
"They're a great group, the neat thing about them is they'll be very proud of their days at Wisconsin," Duerst said. "They're Big Ten Champions, they've been to NCAAs, that's something they can walk away with and be very proud to be a Badger player. They've been part of history."
Wisconsin fell behind 36:46 into the game when Marquette freshman defender Katie Kelly took a free kick from the right side and sent the ball sailing on net for Marquette's first and only score.
Wisconsin goalkeeper Lynn Murray, playing close to the end line, got her hands on the Marquette offering, but the sophomore crossed behind the end line on the save, allowing the ball to cross the plane for the eventual game-winning tally.
"Those are tough moments; in the end, this game is sometimes luck and that was a bounce that went Marquette's way," Duerst said.
After failing to record a shot in the first half, the Badgers came out firing in the second half, out-shooting the Golden Eagles 7-5. However, the Marquette defense was up to the challenge, with goalkeeper Laura Boyer stopping both of UW's shots on net and the defense disrupting both of Wisconsin's chances on corner kicks.
"They were definitely all over the place and they wanted it," Brown said of the Marquette defense. "We wanted it too, but I think they just outworked us today."
Wisconsin pushed even harder in the waning moments of the physical contest; one that saw 42 fouls called and a pair of yellow cards handed out, eventually dropping only one defender back in its attempt for the equalizer. But the Golden Eagle defense refused to break as they scraped their way to the 1-0 victory.
"I don't think we played a good game, it was not a good way to end it definitely," Brown said. "I really felt like we had our momentum going and then when they got that goal, I think it just put a damper on things."
Wisconsin was shut out for just the third time on the season, and for the first time since a 1-0 loss to Purdue in mid-October.
"The thing is, we've been shut out when we had a lot of chances, but today we didn't have enough [chances] because we didn't play our game," Duerst said.
The Marquette defense stopped a Wisconsin offensive attack that had been on a tear during their recent seven-game winning streak, averaging nearly three goals a game during their stretch run to the postseason.
"We got into a game where some players wanted to do some things individually, take too many touches and hit the home run ball and that's not our style," Duerst said. "I wanted to display the way we've been playing the last couple weeks, and we've been playing winning soccer."
