The middle of August is an exciting time of year for fans of college soccer, as the exhibition season concludes and "real" games begin ... and from August 22-24, FC Wisconsin Eclipse alumns led their teams to big season-opening victories for multiple Top 25 teams.
Marquette University kicked off their 2014 campaign with a 3-0 win over Loyola University (IL). The game was scoreless until the 80th minute when Mady Vicker assisted on the opening and game-winning goal. Marquette also featured two other starters from the club in defender Jacie Jermier and midfielder Mary Luba. Loyola also featured a trio of alumns, with GK Monica Gonyo, and defenders Valerie Gonyo and Mariah Vichich.
The University of Wisconsin opened their season in style with a Cara Walls golden goal in overtime to claim a 1-0 victory over Pac-12 opponent University of Oregon. As usual, the Badgers also got a dominant midfield performance for 90 minutes from McKenna Meuer.
Notre Dame had a thrilling come-from-behind 3-1 win over the University of Illinois, with Brittany Von Reuden providing the assist on the winning goal.
Former staff coach Hideki Nakada, now at Stanford University, also had a great opening weekend, as the Cardinal defeated perennial powerhouses University of North Carolina and Duke University to start the year undefeated. (Club alum Mary Elizabeth Bender is a freshman at Duke but did not see action this weekend.)
There are a lot of players in top 25 college soccer from Wisconsin ... come to a training at FC Wisconsin Eclipse to see why!