DES MOINES, Iowa – The Marquette University women's soccer team edged the Drake University women's soccer team, 2-1, Sunday, Sept. 9 at the Cownie Soccer Complex.
 
Redshirt junior Vanessa Kavan (Lincoln, Neb.) scored her first goal of the season and the second of her career for Drake (2-5-0). Leah Celarek and Alyssa Bombacino scored for Marquette (1-5-1) in its first win of the season.
 
Celarek netted the opening goal in the 30^th minute (30:17) when she took a pass from teammate Abby Hess on the near side. Celarek's shot went past Bulldogs goalkeeper Kelsie Stone (Hoffman Estates, Ill.) far post.
 
Out of halftime, Kavan's penalty kick evened the match in the 46^th minute (46:17). Drake was awarded the penalty after sophomore Rebecca Corbett (Urbandale, Iowa) was taken down in the box. Kavan buried the equalizer past the Golden Eagles' keeper, Maddy Henry, in the upper left 90.
 
Later, Marquette scored the game winner when the Bulldogs' defense failed to clear the ball in their box and Alyssa Bombacino won the ball after a series of deflections and shot it past Stone.
 
Stone was kept busy Sunday as Marquette took 18 shots with 10 on goal. She made a career-high seven saves. Kavan led Drake with two shots, both on goal, while junior Annie Schmitz (St. Louis, Mo.) had the other shot for the Bulldogs.
 
"I felt we were good defensively from front to back for much of the game, but conceded two goals that we have to make a team like Marquette work harder for," said head coach Lindsey Horner. "The first one was incredibly unlucky and the second one we got punished for not competing for an air ball and not properly clearing the second ball. We were right in this game, which is something we couldn't say a year ago at their place. We have improved in a lot of ways, and gained a lot of experience in the first half of our season. In speaking with the team we emphasized that this first half of the season was a complete grind with the road swings and quality of opponents. We took some lumps but we also learned so much from each game. This next phase of our season prior to conference we need to be able to put together complete performances in order gain results. These next three games are big for us before we head into MVC play and we are looking forward to Thursday night. We are so pleased with Vanessa to convert the goal. She was out all last year, prior to that was a left forward for two years, and today demonstrated how good she can be as a left back on both sides of the ball."
 
Following Sunday's match, Drake hosts South Dakota Thursday night at Cownie. First kick with the Coyotes is set for 6 p.m. and the game will be shown on ESPN+.