Friday night was one for the record book as the Marquette women’s lacrosse team defeated Cincinnati 14-6 at Valley Fields to earn its first conference win in program history.
For the second consecutive game, the Golden Eagles came out hot as sophomore attacker Claire Costanza found the back of the cage a little over a minute after the opening whistle. A minute later, redshirt freshman midfielder Taylor Smith gave Marquette a 2-0 advantage. Costanza and sophomore midfielder Hayley Baas scored in rapid succession giving the Golden Eagles a 4-0 advantage at the 24-minute mark.
“We’ve been working on just play the game, take risks, make mistakes if you have to, but go out hard and see what comes of it and it’s obviously paid off,” coach Meredith Black said.
The next 20 minutes were not nearly as kind, as the Bearcats went on a 3-0 run cutting the Golden Eagles’ lead to one. However, in arguably the most crucial play of the game, Costanza finished off a hat trick by beating the keeper with four minutes to go in the half, giving Marquette a 5-3 lead.
“(The goal) was huge,” said Black. “It gave us that two goal cushion which we needed but we went into half time telling our team it was zero-zero.”
Much like the beginning of the first half, the Golden Eagles came out of the locker room with an offensive assault as sophomore attacker Kenzie Brown beat the keeper three minutes into the half. This marked the eighth consecutive game in which Brown scored, and she went on to finish the game with two goals.
Two minutes later, Costanza scored to bring her total to four on the day. For the next few minutes, Marquette and Cincinnati traded goals until Baas made it 9-5 with a little less than 19 minutes to play. Baas was a driving force in Marquette putting the game out of reach, as she tallied a hat trick in the last 19 minutes.
With 10 seconds to go, the Golden Eagles secured a loose ball in the midfield and dished it back to sophomore goalkeeper Sarah Priem. When the clock hit zero, Priem threw the ball in the air in pure exaltation, as the goalkeeper was rushed by her teammates. The program had secured its first conference victory.
“They are committed to pushing themselves in practice,” said Black. “They buy into everything we ask of them and they deserve it. They deserve it because they’ve earned it and it makes me so proud to say I’m their coach.”
With the win, Marquette goes to 1-0 in Big East play bringing its overall record to 5-5 on the year. The Golden Eagles begin an east coast road trip as they head to Georgetown, Rutgers and Connecticut before coming back to the Valley April 18 for a game against Temple.
