The Marquette women’s lacrosse team faced an 8-2 deficit at the half to come within two of Vanderbilt, but couldn’t complete the comeback, losing 11-9.

The Golden Eagles were led in scoring by junior midfielder Hayley Baas with three goals and also had strong contributions from points leader Claire Costanza and freshman midfielder Allison Lane, each with two goals. Marquette (4-11, 0-5) outshot the Commodores, 29-19, including an 18-shot second half barrage.

“I’m really proud of our team. We fight so hard and never give up and I think that showed today,” Marquette head coach Meredith Black told GoMarquette.com. “We showed what we were capable of after going down six and bringing it within two. We have to put it together for 60 minutes, which is our challenge right now.”

Only 16 of those 29 shots were on net, however, and the Golden Eagles were beat in the draw controls, 14-8.

“We have to continue to work on draws and our shooting percentage,” Black said. “Those are the two areas that have plagued us all year. We had the opportunities and finding the net has been something we will continue to work on. As for the draw, we can’t give them the possessions. Without those, they wouldn’t have scored as many goals.”

The game started with a bang, as Vanderbilt (7-8, 4-2) got a goal just 20 seconds into game, off the hands of Alexa Kunowsky. The game hit a standstill for the next 9:30, until Baas scored her first of the game and tied the game at 1. Just 30 seconds later, the Commodores responded, taking a 2-1 lead and embarking on a 7-1 run to end the half. Vanderbilt had 12 shots on net in the half and all but three were on net. Marquette, on the other hand, only had five shots on net out of the 11 attempted.

But Marquette did not go quietly.

The Golden Eagles scored nine minutes into the second half on Lane’s first goal of the game and trailed by five, 8-3.  After a Vanderbilt goal shortly after, Marquette scored two more, trailing 9-5 and slowly chipping away at the deficit. The problem was for every Golden Eagle goal, Vanderbilt responded.

After trading goals, the Commodores led 11-6 with 8:27 to go. Marquette picked up the offense from there and scored three unanswered, trailing 11-9 with 1:21 to go. But there just wasn’t enough time for Black’s squad to complete the comeback and the Golden Eagles took their sixth straight loss, 11-9.

Marquette will try to end the losing streak Saturday at 5 p.m. with a rare home game at Hart Park  against Georgetown (5-9, 4-1), who has won three straight.