The Marquette Golden Eagles improved to 2-2 on the season after collecting a pair of victories against Michigan and Detroit this weekend.
The road trip began Friday, when the Wolverines hosted the Golden Eagles for their inaugural home game. Michigan came out excited and scored five straight goals, the first coming just 43 seconds after the opening whistle.
Marquette showed great poise, despite being down five goals early in the contest. The comeback started halfway through the first half as freshman Rebecca Putna scored her first collegiate goal. From there the team finished off the half scoring the next five goals to take a one goal advantage into the locker room.
“Going down was tough but I give a lot of credit to Michigan coming out strong, but we were able to keep a cool head and we didn’t let it get to us,” coach Meredith Black said. “(As the game went on) our confidence grew and (we) were able to fight back slowly one goal at a time.”
The Wolverines tied up the match on multiple occasions in the second half, but Marquette refused to lose its grip on the game, earning the 12-10 victory in Ann Arbor, Mich. The tenacity was highlighted by a scoring drought of more than 30 minutes for Michigan.
Even more impressive was the play of sophomore Claire Costanza, who had a career day, tallying five points on a goal and four assists. Freshman Julianna Shearer and sophomore Kenzie Brown led the team in scoring, each netting a hat trick and grabbing an assist on the afternoon.
“Our attack had been playing really well in practice, and they showed that today,” Black said. “We are really versatile. Obviously Claire is so important to our team, but everyone else stepped up as well.”
Black’s squad looked to keep momentum rolling Sunday at Detroit. The team exploded on offense, as Shearer continued her productive weekend by netting four of the game’s first five goals. She would add one more goal in the opening frame, as the Golden Eagles took an 8-3 lead into the half.
Freshman Amanda Bochniak played a career afternoon of her own as she tallied six points, netting a goal and adding five assists. Sophomore Hayley Baas scored another hat trick, while classmate Costanza found the back of the net as well.
“(Julianna) is really great off ball. She’s a great cutter, she sees the field, she sees the play develop and she gets into a position to make herself a threat,” Black said. “Amanda has great vision with the ball. She sees the field so well that, with a little bit of pressure, can still make some nice feeds and see some nice opportunities.”
Marquette notched its second consecutive victory, downing Detroit 15-9 Sunday afternoon. The Golden Eagles took 28 shots compared to Detroit’s 14 and held a 15-10 advantage in draw controls.
The back-to-back wins mark the first win streak in program history. Marquette women’s lacrosse comes back to Milwaukee for its 2014 home opener Friday at 1 p.m. against Duquesne at Valley Fields.
