The Marquette men’s lacrosse team received its first loss of the season, falling 11-9 to the Jacksonville Dolphins Saturday afternoon.
“At the end of the day I think that losses always reveal your character. We felt that we had times of adversity today and there were a couple of moments we responded,” head coach Andrew Stimmel said. “We were not playing in the style that we wanted to.”
Despite the cold weather outside, both teams appeared to come out hot. Redshirt sophomore Garrett Moya racked up the first goal less than ten minutes into the game. Jacksonville did not waste any time responding back as they tallied up four goals to end the quarter.
Despite Connor McClelland scoring a goal toward the end of the quarter, Marquette found themselves down 4-2 at the end of the quarter.
The Golden Eagles fought back in the second quarter. The first-year attack, Devon Cowan, was able to score a breakthrough goal and set up momentum for the rest of the frame. Chris Kirschner and McClelland each followed with more goals. The teams were tied at 5-5 at halftime.
The second half started similarly to the first. Senior Peter Henkhaus gave Marquette its first lead again since the beginning of the game, going up 6-5.
From there, the two teams went back and forth scoring. Jacksonville’s Alec Drosos responded in the next possession, tying the game at 6-6. Then Marquette attackman, Anthony Orsini put the Golden Eagles back on top once more.
Throughout the second half, goalie John Hulsman made some huge defensive saves protecting the net. He made 11 saves on the afternoon. However, Jacksonville surged through and was able to find a way to score two more times before the third quarter was over.
“I thought we missed executions on things that we were working on in practice this week,” senior defenseman P.J. Cox said. “Jacksonville did a really good job at turning on the pressure in situations and making us uncomfortable. They did a good job, hats off to them.”
The Dolphins added three more goals in the fourth, but Kirschner was not ready to give up just yet. He scored two goals with under six minutes of play left. Unfortunately, it was not enough for a comeback and the Marquette men’s lacrosse team fell short with the final score being 11-9.
“We need to grow and continue to learn from moments where things aren’t going our way. This is going to be a growth moment for us and we are looking at what we can do to get better,” Stimmel said.
Marquette was led by Kirschner’s three goals on four shots and one ground ball.
“Kirschner played well. He has been a guy who has done what the coaches have asked of him,” Cox said. “He has done a good job of taking feedback from the coaches, learning from it and doing what the team asks of him. He had a good day because of it.”
McClelland scored two goals and had five saves on the day. Cowan and Henkhaus both contributed with one goal and an assist each. Moya and Orsini added one goal as well.
Mason Woodward tallied up six ground balls and had two turnovers. Thomas Washington grabbed five ground balls and caused one turnover. Washington also took his mark at the X at faceoff. He took 18 faceoffs and won nine of them.
The Golden Eagles were unable to stop Jacksonville’s top offensive player, Jacob Greiner, who scored five goals and had two assists. Evan Tyler added three goals and seven assists on the day as well. Alex Giovinco was 12-for-24 on faceoffs while Adam Baker made six saves and allowed nine goals on the afternoon.
Marquette (2-1) will travel to Pontiac, Michigan next Saturday to take on Detroit Mercy at 11 a.m.
“We will continue to find a way to get better. This (loss) does not have to define us at the end of the day,” Stimmel said. “We know that we didn’t play our best. We will look internally as a staff and as a team to get better this coming week.”
This article was written by Molly Gretzlock. She can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @MGretzlock.
