In a season where the Marquette women’s lacrosse team is looking to make history and win its first Big East title, the Golden Eagles have started the 2023 season on the right foot.
Behind a balanced team effort, the Golden Eagles (3-0) are off to their best start in program history as they took down the Bearcats 19-13 Sunday afternoon.
First-year attacker Camryn Callaghan got out to a hot start, scoring on her first two shots of the game to help Cincinnati get out to a 2-0 lead with 11:00 left in the first.
The Golden Eagles were able to turn things around quickly as they scored three free-position goals in a row, the last at the 8:44 mark of the quarter to take a 3-2 lead.
Despite going a woman up after yellow card was assessed to sophomore defender Alexis Rich, Marquette allowed Callaghan to score her third of the quarter to knot things up at 3-3.
The two sides would score one more goal each, with senior midfielder Lydia Foust scoring for Marquette and junior attacker Elizabeth Murphy scoring for Cincinnati with 2:19 left to keep the game tied, 4-4 heading into the second quarter.
The offenses seemed to slow down to begin the second, as neither team got much going outside of a goal from Grace Wehland to give the Bearcats a 5-4 lead at the 14:31 mark.
The next 10 minutes would be a different story as Marquette got rolling, as they outscored the Cincinnati 4-1 to take a two goal lead team, 8-6 with 4:35 to play in the first half.
Callaghan would score her second woman-down goal in the match to bring it back within one, before sophomore midfielder Meg Bireley capitalized on the woman-up to give the Golden Eagles a 9-7 lead heading into halftime.
All five goals scored in the frame for Marquette came from five different players.
The Golden Eagles carried that momentum into the third quarter, going on a 3-0 goal scoring run to take the largest lead of the day by either team, 12-7 with 8:52 left.
Two of those goals came from Bireley to earn her fourth career hat-trick and first of the season.
Cincinnati finally ended the scoring run from Marquette with two goals in a row to cut the lead down to three, 12-9 with 6:29 left.
Foust scratched home one more goal in the third quarter for Marquette as it took a 13-9 lead heading into the final quarter.
The Bearcats tried a mount a comeback in the fourth. After the two sides each scored earlier in the frame, Cincinnati scored three straight to bring the game within one, 14-13 with 8:25 left, forcing a timeout from Marquette head coach Meredith Black.
After the timeout it was all Marquette, as they went on a 5-0 run to finish the game and hold off the comeback from the Bearcats.
Senior attacker Shea Garcia led the Golden Eagle attack with five goals and had six total points. She was followed by Foust who finished the day with four goals.
Meanwhile it was a career day for Callaghan, who scored over 60% of Cincinnati’s goals, with eight on the afternoon while adding one assist. Wehland also had a hat-trick for the game.
Sophomore goal keeper Brynna Nixon improved her record to 3-0 for Marquette by making eight saves on 21 shots (38.1%).
Cincinnati’s goalkeeper in junior Ashley Lapp was pulled part way through the third quarter after giving up 11 goals on 12 shots. First year goalkeeper Ellie Puente filled in and made four saves on 12 shots.
The Golden Eagles won the draw control battle, winning 22 of the 36 draws in the game, with senior midfielder Mary Blee coming away with 11.
Marquette will return to Valley Fields on Thursday to take on the Northwestern Wildcats at 5 p.m. CST.
This article was written by Jackson Gross. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @Jackson GrossMU.
