The Marquette women’s lacrosse team went 1-1 this weekend at Valley Fields with a 10-7 loss to Michigan Friday and a 13-5 victory against Detroit Sunday.
Claire Costanza led the Golden Eagles (4-5) in scoring with 10 points for the weekend, coming on three assists and seven goals. Marquette also had significant contributions from freshman and senior attacks Riley Hill and Nicole Gleason, who each had four goals.
Costanza tops all point categories for Marquette with 33 total points on 13 goals and 20 assists, which is good for the most assists per game in the Big East (2.22) and the fifth most assists in the country, as well as the conference’s third most points per game (3.67).
“Claire (Costanza) is just so important to our team,” Marquette coach Meredith Black said after the loss to Michigan. “She’s a leader on the attack and really controls the ball so well and is able to take any type of defense.”
However, Costanza’s four-point performance was not enough to keep the Golden Eagles from surrendering a four-goal lead and falling victim to an 8-1 second half run from the Michigan Wolverines.
Marquette was all over its opponent in the first half, making good on offensive chances and giving the Wolverines no room to work on the other end of the ball. Hill had a hat trick in the first half. Defensively, the Golden Eagles forced seven turnovers and junior goaltender Sarah Priem stood on her head, stopping eight shots. Marquette also dominated the faceoff circle, winning six of the nine contests in the opening 30 minutes. The Golden Eagles went to the break leading 6-2, but that all changed in the second half.
Michigan came out firing, scoring three goals in the opening 7:49 of the half to cut the Marquette advantage to one and forcing a timeout from Black. The timeout did little to change the pace of the game, as Michigan tied the game and subsequently took the lead with two goals in a span of 70 seconds and ripped home eight consecutive goals in the second before Costanza stopped the run, netting one with six seconds remaining, but the damage was clearly done.
“We played to win in the first half and we played not to lose in the second half,” Black said. “We lost a little confidence… This team’s never had to play with a lead before… It put us into a defense mode where we needed to keep on the attack and we didn’t.”
Sunday afternoon, the Golden Eagles had another big first half advantage, and with it an opportunity to avenge Friday’s loss.
Marquette took a 2-0 lead less than two minutes into the game against Detroit, but the Titans refused to back down, scoring two and tying the game with 20:22 left in the first half. But the Golden Eagles stayed aggressive on offense, netting five in a row against Detroit and taking a 7-2 lead with 5:58 to go. The Titans posted one more before the first intermission and again Marquette led by four at the half.
But the Golden Eagles didn’t let the lead slip by this time and had five different scorers in the half, putting away six goals and never letting their opponent within three points, winning 13-5.
“It feels good to have a response after Friday’s loss,” Black said. “We talked about a mentality shift going into this game and also to keep that same mentality that we had in the first half for the second half… staying focused, staying committed and driven to what our ultimate goal is, to win the game.”
The Golden Eagles take on No. 17 Notre Dame at Valley Fields Wednesday at 4 p.m.
