After suffering their second loss of the season to Louisville, Marquette women’s lacrosse returned to the field looking to right the ship at home.
The Golden Eagles did just that defeating the Canisius Golden Griffins 18-11 on Friday afternoon.
“Really proud of this team,” head coach Meredith Black said. ” I liked coaching this game because it was not easy. Give Canisius a lot of credit they kept us working, on our toes, it was great we pulled off a win and finished the game really strong but I do believe we can learn from things too.”
Unlike past games this season, Marquette got off to a quick start scoring three goals in the first 10 minutes thanks to two goals from Emily Cooper and a goal from Hannah Greving.
With 7:25 left to play in the first half, Canisius found a hot stretch scoring four goals to bring the MU lead within one into the half, 8-7.
“We fouled them way too much,” Black said. “We have to learn how to build on our momentum. We would build but let them back in the game and have to close that gate at some point.”
Canisius did not stop there with starting the second half off with a goal in the first two minutes to tie the game at 8-8. First-year attack Emma Soccodato’s goal at the 24:54 mark of the half started an offensive surge for MU.
“Super big,” Cooper said. “I think once we got that kick there was just no looking back.”
Black seconded Cooper’s remarks on the importance of the surge.
“It was huge, we needed that,” Black said. “Emily Cooper did a great job on that draw and Ellie Henry did a great job on those little things in order to let us get that ball. Once we had possession we were in good shape.”
Cooper led the way for Marquette with three goals and six draw controls marking a special day. The junior scored three goals and won six draw controls. Until today, the Columbia, Maryland, native did not score in a collegiate game.
“I think it is more teammates than me,” Cooper said. “This is probably the closest team that I have apart of, just the connections off the field have transferred on the field it is a great thing to be apart of.”
For Black, it was Cooper’s presence at the draw that stood out in her performance today.
“That girl just understands the draw better than anyone I know,” Black said. “She is really dialed in, she knows where it is going to go. Today more so than the others games, we gave her a little bit more of longer leash to play more offense and she comes out and score three goals so I was like ‘good job’ and that was like a bonus because we rely on her for the ball on the draw and for her to get some goals is great.”
Along with Cooper, two other Golden Eagles’ scored three goals Megan Menzuber and Lydia Foust.
For the third straight game, Julianna Horning and Sophia Leva split time in the cage. Horning finished with three saves while giving up seven goals while Leva made nine saves and gave up four goals.
Teams tend to change goalies at half for numerous reasons but for Black, it was apart of the gameplan for the afternoon.
“We had it preset before the game,” Black said. “Jules is an amazing goalie as she always shows but I think Phi (Sophia) has been working hard and doing a great job at being a fantastic backup goalie, she is also really strong at 8-meters so it was a good fit for her and played a great second half.”
Marquette led Canisius in almost every category including draw controls, ground balls, saves and shots.
For Canisius, they were led by Marissa Malvaso who scored two goals, collected two assists and three ground balls. Bryar Cummings, Marissa Malvaso, Miranda Malvaso and Sklar McArthur all scored a pair of goals each as well. Lauren Gilbert made seven saves while giving up 12 goals and Emily Van Kessel made four saves while giving up six goals on the afternoon.
The Golden Eagles lead the series with the Golden Griffins 2-0.
Marquette (2-2) will remain home to take on Niagara Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. at Valley Fields.
“They are a similar team (to Canisius),” Black said. “Scrappy, aggressive so we just need to play our game and the one change we can make is having less fouls on defense and build on momentum a little better.”
This article was written by John Leuzzi. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @JohnleuzziMU.
