On Saturday, Marquette men’s soccer moved to 5-1-1 on the year. They did this by avoiding a loss to otherwise winless Southern Indiana. They did this because Tomiwa Adewumi scored three goals in the last 22 minutes of the match, pushing the Golden Eagles to a 3-2 victory even though they played the last stretch of the match with just 10 men due to a red card on Drew Mullins.
I’ve been pretty clear about the fact that I don’t think Marquette is very good even if they only have the one loss to a ranked Wisconsin team on their record this season. Getting bailed out of a loss to a team that was picked to finish last in the Ohio Valley Conference by a superhuman performance by one player kind of helps explain that entire idea.
AND YET, as I was preparing a preview for Friday’s Big East opener against Georgetown, I discovered that YOUR Marquette Golden Eagles are earning votes in the United Soccer Coaches top 25 poll as of Tuesday’s new rankings. Is the fact that Wisconsin is undefeated and up to #7 in the country now helping MU out? Is that what’s happening here? Is this a “there’s only eight people who vote in this thing” situation and if you impress one of the 8, all of a sudden you have four points and are “receiving votes?”
There’s no way that Marquette is actually the #29 team in the country right now, or even #30 as they’re technically tied with Hofstra with four points each. I’d love to be able to throw some more data at that idea, but the NCAA hasn’t launched the RPI for the season yet. Justifiably, mind you, but there’s just no way that MU belongs here, 5-1-1 or not.
Other than Wisconsin, the only other ranked teams on Marquette’s schedule this season are both in the Big East. I mentioned I discovered this while preparing a preview, and that’s because I had to check in on where Georgetown was ranked. They were #4 in the country last week, but now they’re “only” #9 headed into Friday’s match against MU. The other ranked squad is Creighton, and the 6-0-2 Bluejays are #14 in the country, dropping down from #12 last week after a 3-3 draw against a Saint Mary’s team that Marquette beat 2-0. Okay, I guess that’s a point in MU’s favor in terms of the rankings here.
That Georgetown match on Friday, September 18th is set for 6pm Central time, and ESPN+ will have the broadcast. After that, Marquette will return home to prepare for the Milwaukee Cup and the early meeting with the Milwaukee Panthers coming up next Tuesday.
You can check out the entire top 25 right here.