Women's Soccer Takes Five-Game Unbeaten Streak on the Road to Marquette

CINCINNATI – Xavier women's soccer (7-4-4; 3-0-2 BIG EAST) heads back out on the road, looking to build on a five-game unbeaten streak at Marquette on Saturday evening. The Musketeers remain undefeated in conference play as Xavier continues to work towards securing the first BIG EAST Championship bid in program history. The top six teams in the 10-team conference earn a bid to the conference tournament. Xavier currently matches Butler for second in the standings.

The Musketeers and the Golden Eagles will face off at 8:00 p.m. ET on the BIG EAST Digital Network, through the FOX Sports Go app.

THE MATCHUP

Xavier Musketeers at
Marquette Golden Eagles
Saturday, Oct. 14 | 8 PM ET
Valley Fields

BIG EAST STANDINGS

SCHOOL	CONF	PTS.	OVERALL
Georgetown	4-0-1	13	10-2-2
Butler	3-0-2	11	10-1-3
Xavier	3-0-2	11	7-4-4
Providence	3-2	9	8-6
Marquette	2-3	6	9-5-1
Villanova	2-3	6	6-8
DePaul	1-2-2	5	5-7-2
Seton Hall	0-2-3	3	0-8-5
St. John's	1-4	3	5-8-1
Creighton	0-3-2	2	2-9-3

PREVIEWING MARQUETTE

The Golden Eagles enter the game at 9-5-1 overall and in 2-3-0 BIG EAST play following a 1-0 loss to Providence on Sunday afternoon.
The Golden Eagles began the year 7-1, with wins over Kentucky, Drake, Louisville, Central Michigan, Mercer, Boston U and Rhode Island, with the only loss coming to No. 2 Stanford in the season opener. With the seven-game win-streak, MU climbed as high as No. 19 in the United Soccer Coaches' Poll.
Since that point, Marquette has gone 2-4-1, including a 2-3 mark in league action. The Golden Eagles closed out the non-conference season with a draw with Illinois State and a set-back at Milwaukee.
MU opened the conference schedule with a pair of losses, at Butler and against Villanova, before winning a pair, at St. John's and at DePaul, going into the Providence game.
Darian Powell leads the Golden Eagles with 12 points on four goals and four assists.
Preseason All-BIG EAST honoree Carrie Madden matches Powell for team-high in goals at four, scored in just 11 appearances. Seven other Golden Eagles have tallied at least once.
Kylie Sprecher leads MU with five assists on the season and Eli beard matches Powell for second on the team with four.
Maddy Henry has played the bulk of the time in-frame for Marquette, collecting 70 saves with 16 goals against for a 9-5-1 record. Henry has earned six complete shutouts and shared time with back-up Sloane Carlson in two more.
Marquette finished last season 12-8-1 overall and 7-2 in BIG EAST play.
The Golden Eagles advance to the BIG EAST Championships game, falling to the Georgetown.
As the BIG EAST runner-up, Marquette earned an at-large big to the NCAA Tournament where the Golden Eagles fell to Wisconsin in NCAA First Round.
Xavier is 1-6-0 in the all-time series with Marquette, which dates back to 1989, a 2-0 loss for Xavier in Cincinnati.
In last season's match at NKU Soccer Stadium, the Musketeers held the Golden Eagles scoreless for over 40 minutes before MU struck to take a 1-0 lead into the break. Xavier held Marquette without another tally for the remainder of the match, but was unable to score the equalizer, falling 1-0.

XU STATS

Xavier moved to 7-4-4 overall and 3-0-2 in BIG EAST play. The draw with DePaul adds to the longest conference unbeaten streak for the program since joining the BIG EAST in 2013.
Five games into the nine-game BIG EAST regular season, Xavier stands in a tie for second in the conference standings with Butler after the Bulldogs picked up a 1-0 win over St. John's on Sunday. No. 12 Georgetown moves into sole possession of first place after picking up a fourth conference win, a 5-0 victory over Villanova.
The draw gives Xavier an 11th point in the BIG EAST standings, adding to the program best mark. The previous high for the program was nine points in the 2015 season.
The five-game unbeaten streak is the longest such streak for the Musketeers since the 2013 season, when the Musketeers opened the season at 5-0-1.
The five-game conference unbeaten streak is the longest for Xavier since the 2003 season, when the Musketeers closed out the Atlantic 10 regular season with a 5-0 streak, and added a sixth straight win to open the A10 Tournament.
The 3-0-2 start marks the longest unbeaten streak to start conference play since beginning the 1997 A10 schedule with a 6-0 mark.
The result adds to program-best for results in BIG EAST play, surpassing the previous-best BIG EAST record from 2015, when the Musketeers went 3-6-0 in conference play.
The Musketeers moved to 6-2-3 at home and 1-1-4 in overtime games on the season.
Sydney Schembri added to her team-high goals and points against Villanova, with her season total standing at five goals for 10 points. Schembri ranks T-5th in the BIG EAST for goals and T-6th in goals per game (0.36).
Schembri's three game-winners leads the Musketeers and tie for the most in-conference. The number ranks 50th in NCAA Division I.
Emma Westwater stands at second on the team with nine points on four goals and an assist.
Tori Doss added three points last weekend to match Samantha Dewey for third most on team at six.
Carrie Lewis leads the team with four assists, ranked T-4th in the BIG EAST for total assists and T-7th in the BIG EAST with 0.27 assists per game.
Toni Bizzarro ranks third in the BIG EAST and 51st in NCAA D-I in save percentage at .839 and fourth in the conference for goals against average (1.01) and shutouts (4).
Bizzarro's total saves (78) rank second in the BIG EAST and 22nd in NCAA D-I. Her saves per game (5.57) ranks second in the conference and 45th in the country.
Defensively, Musketeers rank in the top five in the conference in saves (85 - 1st), goals against average (0.99 - 3rd) and goals allowed (15 - T-4th).

LAST TIME OUT

Xavier played DePaul to a 1-1 draw through double overtime on Sunday, Oct. 8.
Tori Doss picked up her third tally of the season and the 16th of her career. Her point total for the season comes to eight, just behind Sydney Schembri and Emma Westwater.
The tally was Doss' second of BIG EAST play for the season, matched with Schembri for team-high for goals in conference play. Doss leads the Musketeers with five points in conference play.
Doss' goal marks the first time Xavier has scored against DePaul. Doss led the Musketeers with four shots, including a pair on goal.
DePaul narrowly edged Xavier 14-13 on shots. Xavier owned a decided advantage on corner kicks, six to one.
Toni Bizzarro collected seven saves with one goal against. She moves to 7-4-3 on the season.
Addie Englehart, Maddie Tierney and Carly Alfano played the full 110 minutes on the Xavier backline.
Carrie Lewis, Courtney Lankford and Andie Kennard also played the full time for the Musketeers.
The result against DePaul is the first in program history. Xavier stands at 0-4-1 against DU all-time.

UP NEXT

Xavier closes out its home schedule on Thursday, Oct. 19 against Seton Hall.
The Musketeers close out the regular season on the road, heading to St. John's and Georgetown.

WEEKLY HONORS

Senior Maddie Tierney was named to the BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll by the conference office on Monday afternoon after helping Xavier women's soccer earn a pair of results last week. Tierney plays a crucial role on a Xavier back line that has given up only one goal in the last four matches, including totaling 220 minutes in a pair of double-overtime results last week that kept the Musketeers undefeated in BIG EAST play.
Tierney is the fifth Musketeer to earn Weekly Honor Roll this season. Samantha Dewey picked up the honor in weeks one and two of the season. Andie Kennard was named to the Honor Roll for the week of Sept. 4. Emma Westwater earned the accolade for the week of Sept. 11 and Schembri earned Weekly Honor Roll accolades for the week of Sept. 25. Additionally, Tori Doss and Toni Bizzarro each picked up major weekly awards for the week of October 2, earning Offensive Player of the Week and Goalkeeper of the Week, respectively.

USC ACADEMIC HONORS

After posting a program-record cumulative team grade point average of 3.73 in the spring 2017 semester, Xavier women's soccer earned the United Soccer Coaches (formerly NSCAA) Team Academic Award for exemplary performance in the classroom as a team during the 2016-17 academic year.
To qualify for the award, the team must have a minimum grade point average of 3.0 or higher for the entire academic year. The team GPA is determined by adding every player's GPA, then dividing by the number of players. Overall, women's soccer earned a cumulative GPA of 3.68 for the 2016-17 academic year.
Women's soccer had 25 student-athletes earn a 3.0 or higher for the academic year, accounting for over 96 percent of the 2016 roster. Those 25, who were each also named to the BIG EAST All-Academic Team, included all of the returnees on the 2017 squad.
Women's soccer's mark of 3.73 in the spring 2017 semester was the highest team GPA among all of Xavier's 18 teams. In total, 17 women's soccer student-athletes earned Dean's List honors for the spring 2017 semester by earning a GPA of 3.5 or higher, including five Musketeers who posted a perfect 4.0 grade point average for the semester
This is the seventh time the Musketeers have earned the team academic honor, also earning the award in 2001, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2016.
The Musketeer men also earned the honor, making Xavier one of 210 schools receiving honors for both their men and women's teams. A total of 841 soccer teams, including 295 men, 546 women, were honored for the 2016-17 season.

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