After more than two months away from the field, court and track, Marquette Athletics will formally return to at least the field this week when women’s soccer faces No. 2 Stanford in its season-opener Friday night at Valley Fields.
The match is part of a home-and-home series with the Cardinal, who were a No. 1 seed in last year’s NCAA Tournament before being upset by Santa Clara. Last year’s match in Palo Alto, California was hardly a contest. Stanford beat Marquette 3-0 and outshot them by a gargantuan 31-2 margin. Marquette also lost to Stanford 5-0 in 2004, the only other time the two teams played.