The women’s lacrosse team split its two-game home stand this past weekend, thrashing California 15-4 Friday and losing to Colorado 10-8 Sunday afternoon.
The win Friday was the team’s first win of the season, and the 11-goal margin of victory was its largest in program history. Marquette dominated the game from start to finish and out-shot the Golden Bears 37-14. Head Coach Meredith Black said she was not surprised about the offensive onslaught against California.
“I have all the confidence in the world in our attack to do that,” Black said. “I think we have a lot of different offensive threats … our team figured that out and now hopefully moving forward beyond today we’ll continue to bring that offensive power.”
The team Friday was led by Amanda Bockniak and Grace Gabriel, who both scored hat tricks. The Golden Eagles owned possession for much of the game and forced California into 23 turnovers. Marquette jumped out to an early two-goal lead and after the Golden Bears answered with a score, the Golden Eagles would score five straight ending the half with a 7-1 lead.
It was a different story Sunday afternoon when Marquette played a stiffer opponent in the Colorado Buffaloes.
The Golden Eagles committed 19 first half fouls which led to a 6-3 Buffaloes lead at halftime. Black said the team fouled in key moments and in dangerous spots on the field. Marquette was whistled for 35 fouls by the end of the game and many led to free-position shots for the Buffaloes. Colorado would go on to convert four of their eight free-position shots in the game.
In order to reduce their fouls, Black says the team must be more discipline and work as a unit on defense.
“When one person gets beat, we need to have a backup there who’s not in out of position so she doesn’t need to foul,” Black said.
Marquette tied the game 7-7 with 15 minutes left in the second half after a three-goal run. However, the team was unable to take the lead and Colorado used a 3-1 run of its own to end the game. Marquette’s Julianna Shearer had a career day, scoring four of the Golden Eagles’s eight goals.
Black gave credit to Colorado but was impressed with her teams’ defensive effort.
“I’m happy to holding them to 10 goals,” Black said. “If we would have fouled less, that’s tampering with how good of a defensive game we could’ve had,” Black said.
At 1-3, Marquette will use this weekend as another building block. Black says the team will continue to focus on its winning mentality and consistency.
Looking ahead the Golden Eagles have a pair of away games as they travel to play at Detroit (0-2) and at Northwestern (1-2).
