The Marquette women’s lacrosse team entered Saturday’s contest against the Cincinnati Bearcats looking for its first season-opener win in program history.
Behind a balanced scoring attack, the Golden Eagles achieved a first as they defeated the Bearcats by a score of 16-13 at Valley Fields.
“I feel really good. I’m glad we came out with the win,” head coach Meredith Black said. “It wasn’t easy, not that we expected it to be, but I think our team fought hard and we had a lot of ups and downs which is typical in a first game, but I’m proud of our team for being able to just overcome.”
The Golden Eagles kept the ball moving in the first quarter, as four different players found the back of the net including Preseason All BIG-EAST Team selection senior Lydia Foust.
For the Bearcats, senior attacker Kylie Nause potted a hat-trick to keep Cincinnati in it as Marquette finished the first frame up 4-3.
Marquette’s offense opened up in the second quarter, as it buried six goals in the period. After the Bearcats scored to bring it within one at 5-4, the Golden Eagles rattled off three straight goals including two from senior attacker Shea Garcia.
The Golden Eagles would lead by as many as four goals in the second quarter before taking a 9-6 lead into halftime after Bearcats junior midfielder Morgan Bates scored with 54 seconds left.
“Our offense didn’t have trouble finding the back of the net when we were composed and made good decisions,” Black said. “When we were in that stretch we were feeling really good and we were moving the ball, looking for the 100% opportunity, (but) when we started forcing it or got excited about an opportunity that’s when we weren’t successful.”
The Golden Eagles would turn up the defensive intensity in the third, only allowing the Bearcats to score twice as graduate student goalie Amanda Rumsey made three saves on five shots.
Offensively, Marquette went on a three-goal run sparked by graduate student Kyra LaMotte scoring two from the free position spot.
The two sides would trade goals to end the third. Marquette headed into the final frame leading 13-8.
After going back and forth early in the fourth quarter, the Golden Eagles scored two goals on the woman-up advantage after a yellow card was called on Tori Accardo, increasing their lead to 16-10 with 6:46 to go.
Despite no scoring for over four minutes, the Bearcats attempted to create a comeback as they scored three goals in span of 44 seconds. All three goals came from first year Ava Goeller, who would finish with four goals in the fourth quarter alone.
That is as close as Cincinnati would get as Marquette’s defense re-found itself down the stretch.
“That’s been happening at practice where we’re not quite finishing, we’re fading at the end of a drill and we start out really strong and we fade and so it’s something we are working on,” Black said. “We can’t fade, we can’t just assume we had that game in the bag, clearly they’re a great team and every team we play is a great team and they’re not gonna let that happen.”
Rumsey would finish her Marquette debut with 14 saves on 27 shot attempts.
Three different Marquette players finished with three goals apiece in Garcia, redshirt sophomore midfielder Leigh Steiner and junior midfielder Emma Soccodato.
“As an offensive unit, we know that if each of us are attacking and using those strengths they really can’t stop us,” Steiner said. “We just know each other’s strengths and are doing really well to capitalize on that.”
Marquette (1-0) will now begin a six-game road trip starting on Monday at No. 4 Northwestern. That game is set for a 6 p.m. CST start time.
“It’s definitely going to be tough being on the road but I think that will just bring our team even closer when you’re getting to spend all the time outside of practice on the bus hanging out,” Steiner said. “Coach Black’s pregame speech talked about how the best championship teams are the ones that have fun together outside of lacrosse, like one big family.”
This article was written by Jackson Gross. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @JacksonGrossMU.
