It was a rough weekend for Marquette women’s lacrosse as the team dropped both games on their East Coast road trip to Rutgers and Conneticut.
After a tough loss to Georgetown last weekend, the Golden Eagles hoped to rebound Friday afternoon at Rutgers. Strong starts were vital for the team. Friday, the Scarlet Knights found the back of the cage just three minutes into the game.
“Coming out a little bit slow, it kind of lulls our team into that pace and then it’s really hard to recover once we get moving again,” said Coach Meredith Black.
With 12:56 to go in the half, the Golden Eagles trailed 3-2 as sophomore Kenzie Brown beat the keeper. The final 12 minutes saw Rutgers go on a 3-1 run to go into the break with a 6-3 advantage.
Rutgers would start the second half on a 4-0 run to stretch its lead to 10-3. Brown would add her second of the game with 15:30 in the half. Seven minutes later, Hayley Baas would add another to make it a 10-5 game. The match would finish 12-6 for Rutgers.
The referee issued an unusual eight yellow cards, including two to Marquette captain Claire Costanza which ended her day late in the second half.
“It hurt us to have Claire get two (yellow cards) and be out of the game, she’s obviously very important to our team,” Black said. “In terms of officiating, they called it equal on both teams.”
Two days later, the Golden Eagles were back in action against the University of Connecticut looking to halt their two game skid. They struck first as Claire Costanza beat UConn goalie Shannon Nee just two minutes in. However, the Huskies answered with four consecutive goals.
The Big East matchup was a game of runs, as Amanda Bochniak and Baas would answer with a pair to pull the deficit to just one. After Nicole Gleason’s goal with eight minutes to go, UConn scored two fast break goals within 16 seconds to give them a three goal cushion. Brown and Anna Muzika would each add one to make it 7-6 game at the half. The goal was Muzika’s first of the season.
“Fast break goals are hard to defend because they come so quick,” Black said. “I was really proud of how our girls didn’t let it affect them and they were able to keep playing and know that they had plenty of time to come back from that.”
The teams traded goals for much of the second half, but Connecticut held a two goal lead for most of the final 30 minutes of play. UConn’s Katherine Finkelston would put the game out of reach netting the team’s 11th goal of the afternoon. The eventual game winner with 7:17 remaining in the match capped the sophomore’s five goal day. Marquette would once again make it a one goal game just under five minutes to play when Kenzie Brown found the back of the cage for the second time. Despite getting forward, the Golden Eagles were unable to equalize, dropping their third consecutive game 11-10.
“The leaders on the team were telling everybody that they had to be proud of the effort that they put out,” Black said. “At the same time losing in such a close match is tough and that’s sort of new for our program being that close in a game with such a good team.”
Marquette fell to 5-8 on the season and 1-2 in conference. The Golden Eagles have a busy Easter Break as they return home to take on Temple at Valley Fields and Villanova at Hart Park in Wauwatosa.
