April 3, 2008

MILWAUKEE - The Marquette women's soccer team will continue spring play Saturday, April 5, in North Carolina where the Golden Eagles will take on a pair of NCAA Tournament participants from a season ago in Duke and UNC Greensboro. Marquette will play Duke at 12:45 p.m., and UNC Greensboro at 2:30 p.m. Both games will be held at WakeMed Soccer Park formerly named SAS Park in Cary, N.C.

'It is important for us to challenge ourselves against out of region competition in the spring," said head coach Markus Roeders. "Duke and UNC Greensboro have very good squads and enjoyed much success in the past. These games will provide great preparation for the fall and our team is excited to play. Duke only lost a couple of seniors for a team that made a deep run in the NCAA tournament this past fall. We haven't played UNC Greensboro but they are talented, well coached and experienced. This is a great opportunity to build on the past weekend."

The Golden Eagles will first play Duke who went 10-6-7 overall in 2007 and earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Blue Devils advanced to the quarterfinals before being upended by Notre Dame, 3-2. Duke is set to return all but two players from last season's squad.

Next for Marquette is UNC Greensboro who went 16-5-1 overall and won the Southern Conference regular season title. The Spartans advanced to the second round before losing to North Carolina, 3-1.

The Golden Eagles are coming off an undefeated weekend where it took wins from Green Bay (5-0) and Loyola (2-0) and tied UW-Milwaukee (1-1). Marquette experimented with many different lineups and four different players tallied goals for MU. Freshman Danielle Martens has started her career as a Golden Eagle in fine fashion with a three-goal performance last weekend.