No. 11 Pirates Take on No. 17 Marquette in BIG EAST Semifinals

WASHINGTON – The No. 11 Seton Hall men's soccer team will travel to Washington, D.C. to take part in their first BIG EAST Tournament since 2012. The Pirates will take on the Midwest Division champion, No. 17 Marquette, Thursday at 3:30.

The schedule for the tournament is as follows:

Semifinals – April 15 - BEDN
No. 2 MW Creighton at No. 1 E Georgetown, Noon
No. 2 E Seton Hall vs. No. 1 MW Marquette, 3:30 p.m. - WATCH

Final – April 17 – FS2
Semifinal Winners, 3 p.m.

All three games will be played at Georgetown's Shaw Field. Georgetown has hosted and won the last three BIG EAST men's soccer championship games.

This is the Pirates' first time playing in the BIG EAST semifinal game since 2004. The program has not won a BIG EAST Championship since 1991 when they won four in a six-year span (1986, 1987, 1988, 1991).

LAST TIME OUT

Seton Hall last played on March 27 when they completed an undefeated regular season at home with a 1-0 win over UConn. The Pirates went 6-0-1 at home for the first unbeaten regular season at Owen T. Carroll Field since The Hall went 7-0-1 in 2003.

After a scoreless first half, the Pirates' Maurice Williams (West Orange, N.J.) found the back of the net in the 59^th minute to put Seton Hall up. The goal was Williams's first as a Pirate and was assisted on a corner kick from James Boote (Southampton, England). Boote now has four assists in the last five games.

For his efforts, Williams was awarded a spot on the BIG EAST's Weekly Honor Roll. Williams is the fifth different Pirate defender to be honored by the conference's weekly honors this season.

SCOUTING – No. 17 Marquette (8-1-1, 5-1-1)

The Golden Eagles have also not played since March 27 but are the top seed coming out of the BIG EAST Midwest Division.
Because the two divisions' schedules did not overlap this season, the Pirates last played Marquette Nov. 2, 2019, a 2-1 Pirate victory on the road in overtime.
The all-time series record between the two programs sits at 6-6-3 with the Pirates taking each of the previous two games against the Golden Eagles.

NEWS & NOTES

In just his third season at the helm, Seton Hall Head Coach Andreas Lindberg and his staff were awarded the BIG EAST Coaching Staff of the Year award, as voted on by the BIG EAST Coaches. Assistants Jeff Matteo and Ali Simmons and volunteer assistant Dan Solli share in the honor with Lindberg. This is the second time the Seton Hall coaching staff has been awarded as the staff of the year. The 2005 staff of Manfred Schellscheidt, Kazbek Tambi, Gerson Echeverry and Arda Altincatal also won the award.
The Seton Hall men's soccer team had five Pirates named to All-BIG EAST Teams. The five members selected to all-conference teams is tied for the highest total in program history when the Pirates also had five All-BIG EAST honorees in 2005. Highlighting the selections for the Pirates are two All-BIG EAST First Team members in CJ Tibbling (Jarna, Sweden) and Luca Dahn (Kahl, Germany). After a solid season between the posts for The Hall, goalkeeper Andreas Nota (Rome, Italy) was awarded a spot on the All-BIG EAST Second Team. Rounding out the Pirates' all-conference selections with Third Team honors are JP Marin (Briarwood, N.Y.) and Johannes Pex (Stephansposching, Germany).
The Pirates currently sit at No. 11 in the United Soccer Coaches Poll. The Hall has ranked as high as No. 9 on April 6. It was the highest ranking for the Pirates since they began the 1990 season at No. 7. It is the Pirates' first season being ranked top-25 nationally since 2006.

WATCH
The game will be broadcast live on the BIG EAST Digital Network's YouTube Channel. Live stats can be found here.

WHAT'S AHEAD
The winners of the two semifinal matchups will compete for the BIG EAST Tournament title on Saturday at 3 p.m.