Women’s lacrosse fell to Connecticut in its conference home opener, 15-13, Saturday afternoon. The loss dropped the Golden Eagles to 1-1 in BIG EAST play and 4-8 overall.
Head Coach Meredith Black said she knew the game was going to be close and pointed to UConn’s late run that was the defining point in the game.
“We knew we had to limit runs and we let them go on a run in the second half,” Black said.
The game was a high scoring affair that saw a combined 60 shots taken. Marquette had five players score on multiple occasions, led by Hayley Baas, Grace Gabriel and Cate Soccodato, who all had hat tricks. Julianna Shearer also added two goals to bring her team-leading total to 26. The Huskies were led by Maggie Tripodi and Alexandra Crofts, who each scored four goals.
Marquette knew it had to keep up with the Huskies high-scoring offense in order to compete. The Huskies lead the BIG EAST in goals per game with 13 on average. The Golden Eagles started the game off strong, scoring the first two goals. After UConn went on a 5-0 run, Marquette answered with six unanswered goals of their own to regain the lead. The first half went back and forth with five ties and three lead changes and would eventually end up tied 9-9.
The second half looked bright for the Golden Eagles when Baas and Soccodato had back-to-back goals, putting Marquette up 11-9. The Huskies responded by putting the game away with six unanswered goals, while keeping Marquette scoreless for 22:33. Black said the team had plenty of shots on goal during the scoreless drought, but just couldn’t finish.
“We had four or five point blank shots that we put into the goalies stick,” Black said. “Give credit to their goalie, she’s an All-American goalie but we had opportunities and I think a little bit was a lack of confidence.”
Black added she still feels good about her team’s performance and believes they will improve from the loss.
“It’s not like we got beat up or beaten off the field, so I feel good about that and where we are,” she said. “The frustrations lies in that we need to finish the play, take one more second of focus to just put the ball in the back of the net, and this game is ours.”
Next up Marquette will travel to Gainesville and take on No. 2 Florida (12-1, 3-0 BIGEAST) Wednesday afternoon. Black said the team is excited to get a chance to play such a high caliber team like Florida.
“They’re really good, they’ve had a great year and I think if we slow their fast break we will give ourselves an opportunity,” Black said.
