The Marquette women’s lacrosse team suffered a 14-10 loss against No. 19 University of Louisville Sunday afternoon at Valley Fields.
The visitors outscored Marquette 7-5 in both halves to hold off the Golden Eagles in the non-conference match-up.
The first half was a story of scoring runs. Louisville scored on their first possession of the day and Marquette followed 90 seconds later. Marquette was able to net four unanswered goals to take a 4-1 lead in the first ten minutes. That lead was short-lived, however, as the Cardinals scored six unanswered.
Louisville dominated after Marquette’s early run and took the lead into halftime by two.
Louisville was able to get a lot of production once they settled into the game and began to adapt to the high-powered Golden Eagle offense.
The second half was more back and forth, as Marquette was able to get the deficit to one, but Louisville, lead by the efforts of senior attacker Ally Hall, was able to hold off the Golden Eagles in the end.
Louisville was able to get off more shots which likely gave them the win. The Cardinals had 41 shots, with 29 on net while the Golden Eagles had 32 shots, with 23 on net. A big part of the game was the turnovers as Marquette coughed the ball up 15 times while the visitors limited their own count to ten.
Marquette was efficient on clears, completing 16 out of 18 attempts. Louisville wasn’t far behind with 18 clears on 22 attempts. Draws and ground balls were close all game as well, but Louisville was able to control it slightly, winning 14 draw controls over Marquette’s 12 and 16 ground balls over Marquette’s 13.
Both teams had production across the board with seven members of either team finding the net. Marquette’s leading goal scorer on the season, redshirt senior attacker Megan Menzuber, found the net just once late in the game.
Three members of the Golden Eagle squad found the net twice in the form of senior attacker Caroline Steller, sophomore midfielder Hannah Greving and sophomore midfielder Lydia Foust. Menzuber, redshirt freshman midfielder Leigh Steiner, sophomore midfielder Emma Soccodato and Mary Schumar each found the net once during the game.
Marquette’s assists were led by Steller, who picked up two more in the game.
Sophia Leva played all 60 minutes in the goal. She saved a career-high 15 shots, but that was not enough to keep off the high-flying Cardinals.
The 19th-ranked Louisville team had three players with more than one goal. Hall was everywhere for the Cardinals, as she picked up five goals, one short of the double hat-trick. She also tacked on an assist and led all players with five points. Senior midfielder Alex McNicholas marked the score sheet with four points, with a goal and three assists.
Both teams move into conference play following today’s game as Louisville will travel home to face University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Thursday for their first ACC match-up. Meanwhile, Marquette will move into BIG EAST play as they take on the University of Connecticut this weekend at Valley Fields.
This article was written by Bryan Geenen. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @BryanGeenen.
