No. 5 Xavier Faces No. 4 Marquette in BIG EAST Championship Quarterfinals

CINCINNATI – Xavier women's soccer (8-7-4; 4-3-2 BIG EAST) will make its first appearance in the BIG EAST Championship on Sunday, traveling to Milwaukee as the No. 5 seed to face the No. 4 seed Marquette (12-6-1; 5-4-0 BIG EAST). First touch with the Golden Eagles is set for 2:00 PM ET.

The game will be live streamed on the BIG EAST Digital Network.

BIG EAST QUARTERFINALS

No. 5 Xavier Musketeers at
No. 4 Marquette Golden Eagles
Sunday, Oct. 29 | 2 PM ET
Valley Fields | Milwaukee, Wis.

FINAL BIG EAST STANDINGS

SCHOOL	CONF	PTS.	OVERALL
Georgetown	6-1-2	20	12-3-3
Butler	5-0-4	19	12-1-5
Providence	5-3-1	16	10-7-1
Marquette	5-4	15	12-6-1
Xavier	4-3-2	14	8-7-4
DePaul	3-2-4	13	7-7-4
St. John's	4-5	12	8-9-1
Creighton	2-5-2	8	4-11-3
Villanova	2-7	6	6-12
Seton Hall	0-6-3	3	0-12-5

BIG EAST CHAMPIONSHIP

PREVIEWING MARQUETTE

Marquette secured the No. 4 seed and home field for the Quarterfinals by picking up the 2-0 win over Seton Hall in the regular season finale. The Golden Eagles finished the regular season at 12-6-1 and 5-4 in BIG EAST play.
MU enters the game as winners of three of its last four matches, including a 1-0 overtime win over the Musketeers. The lone loss in that stretch came at Georgetown, which claimed the BIG EAST Regular Season title outright.
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.
After that streak to open the season, the Golden Eagles went 2-4-1, including a 2-3 mark to open league action, leading into the game with Xavier.
Carrie Madden leads the team with 17 points, leading the team with seven goals and adding three assists.
Darian Powell has five goals, including four game-winners, and four assists for 14 points.
Kylie Sprecher has a team-high six assists and a pair of goals for 10 points.
Maddy Henry has made every start in-frame, collecting 93 saves with 19 goals against for a record of 12-6-1, including nine complete shutouts, plus two more shutouts in which she shared time with Sloane Carlson.
Earlier this season, Xavier fell at Marquette in extra time, 1-0. MU scored the golden goal in the 93rd minute when Powell used a header off a long serve into the box to send the ball over the head of Toni Bizzarro, who came off her line to collect the ball.
As the BIG EAST runner-up in 2016, Marquette earned an at-large big to the NCAA Tournament where the Golden Eagles fell to Wisconsin in NCAA First Round.
Xavier is 1-7-0 in the all-time series with Marquette, dating back to 1989 when the series opened with a 2-0 loss for the Musketeers in Cincinnati.

XU STATS

Xavier closed out the regular season at 8-7-4 overall and 4-3-2 in BIG EAST play. The Musketeers posted a winning conference record for the first time since 2005.
The Musketeers finished in fifth place, marking the highest conference finish since 2005, when the Musketeers tied for fifth place in the Atlantic 10.
The BIG EAST Championship appearance is the first for the program since finishing fourth in the A10 in 2003, earning a bid to the conference tournament.
Xavier finished the regular season with a program-best 14 points in the BIG EAST standings.
Xavier held every BIG EAST opponent to one goal or fewer. Xavier limited 16 of 19 opponents in the 2017 regular season to a single goal or less.
The loss the GU was the only setback in conference play that ended in regulation.
Prior to the GU game, the last time the Musketeers lost in regulation was Sept. 8, a 3-1 setback at Duquesne.
Sydney Schembri led the Musketeers in the regular season with six goals for 12 points. Schembri ranks T-9th in the BIG EAST for goals and T-9th in goals per game (0.33).
Schembri's three game-winners leads the Musketeers and tie for the third most in the conference.
Tori Doss picked up her fourth tally of the season and the 17th of her career. Her point total for the season comes to 10, standing behind only Schembri.
Schembri and Doss each had three tallies in BIG EAST play to lead Xavier, tying for sixth in the conference for BIG EAST games.
Doss leads the Musketeers with seven points in conference play, ranking t-8th in the BIG EAST for conference games only.
Carrie Lewis leads the team with four assists, ranked T-9th in the BIG EAST for total assists and T-8th in the BIG EAST with 0.21 assists per game.
Toni Bizzarro ranks third in the BIG EAST in save percentage at .843 and is fifth in the conference in shutouts (4).
Bizzarro's total saves (102) rank second in the BIG EAST. Her saves per game (5.67) ranks second in the conference.
Defensively, Musketeers rank in the top five in the conference in saves (109 - 2nd) and goals against average (0.98 - 4th).

LAST TIME OUT

Xavier fell, 1-0, to RV Georgetown on Thursday afternoon.
The Hoyas scored in the 56th minute when, off a free kick just outside the penalty box, GU's Rachel Corboz buried the ball in the upper right corner of the net to put the Hoyas ahead.
Against the Hoyas, Carrie Lewis and Sydney Schembri each recorded a shot in the second half as the Musketeers looked for the equalizer.
Schembri also created an excellent opportunity midway through the second half, getting behind the Georgetown defense and into the penalty box before preseason BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year Elizabeth Wenger broke the play up just outside the six-yard box.
Toni Bizzarro collected six saves with one goal against, playing the full 90 minutes in-frame.
Andie Kennard, Carly Alfano, Carrie Lewis, Skylar Groth and Abby O'Keefe played full time for the Musketeers.

UP NEXT

The winner of Sunday's BIG EAST Quarterfinal will advance to the semifinal against the No. 1 seed Georgetown, held on Thursday, Nov. 2 in Washington, D.C.
The BIG EAST Championship game is scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 5th.

Schedule

Upcoming Events