The Marquette women’s lacrosse team dropped its second consecutive game on Saturday, falling to Villanova, 10-6. The Wildcats (6-4) came out firing on all cylinders and took a 7-2 lead at the half, which the Golden Eagles (4-7) couldn’t overcome.
“We let in too many goals in the first half,” Marquette head coach Meredith Black said. “We can’t let them put up seven goals in a half, it’s too much.”
Villanova was on target with nine of their 1o first half shots and was 14-of-16 for the game. While the Wildcat offense was producing at one end, Marquette struggled to score at the other. The Golden Eagles had just five of their 10 first half shots on net, 12-for-23 on the game and committed seven turnovers in the opening 30 minutes of play.
Marquette received contributions from six different players each with one goal. Among those were junior midfielder Claire Costanza, whom added to her team high 17 goals, and attacks Riley Hill and Nicole Gleason, each with 12 on the season. The Wildcats were led by means of hat tricks from junior attack Kelsey Denihan and sophomore midfielder Carolyn Dottino-Buenahora.
Villanova picked up right where it left off in the first half with three unanswered to start the second half, taking a 10-2 lead, which prompted a timeout called by Black.
“I just told them there’s plenty of time,” Black said.
Black’s squad scored four times and didn’t allow a single Wildcat goal from that point on, but it just wasn’t enough. Inopportune turnovers and poor shooting ruined Marquette scoring chances down the stretch, adding to the difficulty of a late comeback.
“I thought we played a really nice second half,” Black said. “I thought we fought til the end… we showed what we’re capable of for sure.”
The Golden Eagles won’t play again until they travel to UConn to play the Huskies on Saturday and coach Black says the team has plenty to work on.
“It’s been a tough week,” Black said regarding playing three games last week. “We gotta continue to work on draw controls… we gotta shoot better, we gotta shoot more and our defense has gotta shut it down.”
Marquette will face UConn in Storrs, Connecticut at 11 a.m. CT on Saturday.
