Marquette women’s lacrosse picked up its second straight victory, defeating the Central Michigan Chippewas 19-9 Wednesday afternoon.
MU is now a perfect 4-0 at Valley Fields this season and improves to 5-3 overall.
Marquette surrendered a 1-0 lead early in the match, but it was all Golden Eagles from there as they scored 12 of the games’ next 15 goals. At halftime, MU led the Chippewas 12-4.
The second half was a much closer battle between the two squads. Like the first half, CMU opened up the scoring with a goal from senior attacker Natalie Karlen. Marquette was able to sustain its large lead and secured the victory, despite narrowly outscoring the Chippewas 7-5 in the final frame.
“It’s really important to start fast and grab momentum,” Black said. “At times this year we’ve gained momentum in games and have struggled to get it back, but today we were consistent from start to finish.”
Eight different MU players scored in the match.
The Golden Eagles were led by a pair of career-best performances from first-year attacker Hannah Greving and Foust, who each potted five goals.
Junior midfielder Madison Kane collected her first hat trick of the season, junior midfielder Caroline Steller scored a pair of goals and senior captain Megan Menzuber tallied a game-high three assists.
Overall, Marquette amassed 33 shots compared to CMU’s 26. Additonally, the Golden Eagles finished with a 19-11 edge in draw controls.
This is the second game in a row the Golden Eagles have scored at least 18 goals. They are averaging nearly 14 per game this season.
“Everyone’s trusting each other and the entire team is stepping up on the offensive end,” Foust said. “That has to be the recipe for success if we’re going to keep this rolling.”
MU had 12 assists on the 19 goals scored in today’s match which is the third best mark in program history.
For Central Michigan, Karlen led the way with three goals and two assists.
Senior goalie Julianna Horning and junior Sophia Leva split time in the cage. Leva made two saves, and Horning notched seven and is now just four shy from being the all-time leader in program history.
Marquette will remain at home to take on the Ohio State Buckeyes Saturday at 2 p.m. Central Standard Time.
“We’ve got great opponent (coming in) on Saturday,” Black said. “We have two days … we’ll be cleaning up some things and that’s what we’ll be focusing on. Hopefully we’ll be able to keep (the wining streak) going.”
This story was written by Tyler Peters. He can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter @_tylerpeters_.
