It was just two years ago that Marquette's women's team, playing its first year in the Big East, finished with a surprising 9-7 record in league play and 18-9 overall during the regular season. That squad eventually wrapped up the season at 22-11 after losing to Kansas State in the WNIT Championship Game.
Last season, the Golden Eagles finished second in the Big East and returned to the NCAA Tournament. They advanced to the second round before losing, 78-47, to Oklahoma.
Despite fielding a team that features three freshmen seeing significant playing time, head coach Terri Mitchell hopes to have another team playing well into March.
The Golden Eagles took a large step in that direction Saturday night. After falling behind, 11-0, early in the game and making just 2 of 20 shots to open the game, Marquette rallied to knock off No. 23 Pittsburgh, 76-69, and get back to .500 in the Big East.
Let the games begin.
Marquette fans had plenty of reasons to be excited. Aside from having a talented and experienced go-to player in junior guard Krystal Ellis, the Golden Eagles are getting significant contributions from a trio of talented freshman.
Against Pittsburgh, Angel Robinson, Jocelyn Mellen and Paige Fiedorowicz combined for 40 points. Their ability, combined with the experience of Ellis, fellow senior Svetlana Kovalenko, juniors Erin Monfre and Kelly Lam, make the Golden Eagles tough to defend.
"They play a lot of minutes," Mitchell said. "One day, we're all going to sit here and talk about all the minutes and what they've meant.
"We're seeing the fruit of those minutes now and we're going to see it next season, too. But we really want to see it in March."
Things haven't always been easy for Marquette. A 95-63 loss to No. 1 Connecticut last week may have been the low point of the season, but Mitchell sees that game -- as well as the come-from-behind victory over Pittsburgh -- as a turning point.
"We've had so many tough and difficult losses," Mitchell says. "There's been so many lessons learned. We don't want to go through that anymore. We want to take what we learned and put it out there."
Getting back to .500 was a good first step. With games remaining against Villanova and USF, the Golden Eagles have a realistic chance to finish with their third consecutive winning season in the Big East. The importance of reaching the break-even mark at this point in the season wasn't lost on the coach, who has seen her team emerge as both a perennial contender in the Big East and a player on the national stage.
"It's extremely important to get back to .500," Mitchell says. "Two years ago, nobody knew who we were or what we could do. We ended up 9-7 with a more experienced team. Last year, we tied for second with all that experience we had back from the year before. We have that possibility in front of us to end up 9-7 again."
With two games left on the 2007-'08 docket, Mitchell and the Golden Eagles are confident in their chances of playing postseason basketball.
While the NCAA Tournament is the ultimate goal, Mitchell says Marquette took an awful lot from its run through the WNIT two years ago. Returning to either tournament would be a boost to the program.
Ellis, meanwhile, thinks another solid finish would help establish the program as a legitimate national power.
"We could finish 9-7 like we did my freshman year," Ellis says. "It is a big thing for us. We want to play in the post-season and we want to show people that we're NCAA material.
Resilient performances like the Golden Eagles put forth on Saturday could go a long way towards proving that point.
