MILWAUKEE – The Milwaukee women's soccer team came up just short of an impressive outcome Thursday night, falling to Marquette by a final score of 1-0 at Engelmann Stadium despite playing with just 10 players for nearly 70 minutes in the contest.

"Playing down is really hard … maybe it's a good lesson for us to learn right now," head coach Kevin Boyd said. "Maybe that's an added lesson while we are trying to get ourselves better every day."
 
The Panthers (1-2) lost their goalkeeper to a red card at the 20:43 mark, yet played well enough against the Golden Eagles (3-0) to nearly pull off the draw.
 
"I was super-impressed," Boyd said. "We also changed systems three times trying to get a little more. I thought Emily (Petring) had a tremendous game, I thought Tina (Kristina Karlof) had a tremendous game, I thought Nat (Natalie Zodrow) put in a really good effort. We got a really good effort from Mal (Mallory McGuire). I thought Ellie (Rebmann) was amazing with what she did. We just had quite a few players that not only put in the effort, but also had great games on top of that."
 
The deciding play came in the 21^st minute, when Lilly Hanke charged out of the goal box on a MU breakaway chance and ended up making the stop outside of the area, resulting in a direct red card for the illegal touch.
 
"Those things happen, that's on us and our players to figure that out so it doesn't happen again," Boyd said about the situation. "It's really hard to play 70 minutes down a player and down a goal. I thought we were unbelievable in terms of our effort. To play like that, down like that, I told them they put in a warrior's effort today. We just never quite linked up. We kept getting these good chances but would have balls that just ran a little too far. We must have had three times where our player was arriving at the same time the keeper was arriving. Give that a half a pace less on those balls and we win that ball and now have a breakaway opportunity. I can't fault the effort that the team put in."
 
Bella Hollenbach was then tested immediately, having to try and make an attempt on the 19-yard free kick, but Molly Keiper was able to sneak it inside the far post at the 20:43 mark for the 1-0 advantage.
 
The Panthers never gave up, playing well the rest of the way but unable to convert any of their significant opportunities. In fact, the shot count ended just 15-10 in Marquette's favor, and Milwaukee finished the night with 55 percent of the overall possession in the match.
 
The Panther offense ticked up the charge in the second half especially. Lola Wojcik made the most of a free kick in the 55^th minute, nearly sneaking by the equalizer.
 
Hollenbach played well in her 69-plus minutes, making several standout saves. She came up with a huge stop in the 70^th minute with a save at the post off a corner kick and made another brilliant diving stop off a cross in the 83^rd.
 
Milwaukee fought to the final horn, even giving a final free kick from about 40 yards away a chance with the clock stopped with 89:57 on the clock, but were unable to convert.
 
The schedule doesn't let up for the Panthers, hitting the road Sunday to take on nationally-ranked Michigan State, currently ranked the No. 20 team in the United Soccer Coaches National Poll. The game is set to get underway at 12 p.m. CT.