Coming into its matchup against No. 3 Northwestern, Marquette entered with its best start in program history.
However, even with career days from sophomore attacker Meg Bireley and first year attacker Tess Osburn, the Golden Eagles were unable to upset the Wildcats, losing 21-14.
Despite losing their first game of the season, head coach Meredith Black was proud of the effort her team had in the game despite falling behind by as many as 10 goals.
“I’m super proud of our team, I think we did a lot of great things (and) we showed what we were capable of,” Black said. “If we can do it agaisnt the No. 3 team in the country we can do it against anyone.”
Statistical leaders
Bireley lead the way for Marquette with five goals and assist for a total of eight points. She was followed by Osburn who scored her first career hat-trick on five shots on goal.
Senior defender Ellie Henry had four draw controls and one successful clear attempt. Senior attacker Mary Schumar was able to pick up eight ground balls along with her eight assists.
Graduate student Izzy Scane attacker had eight goals on 13 shots on goal, while adding an assist for a total of nine points. Scane was one of two other players with three or more goals, including senior attacker Erin Coykendall and graduate student midfielder Elle Hansen.
Northwestern catches fire
Heading into the second quarter, Northwestern held just a one goal lead, 5-4 after Coykendall scored with 43 seconds left in the first frame.
That is the closest Marquette would get all evening as Northwestern would go on a 7-1 run to take a 12-5 lead with 2:31 left in the second, with Scane and first year midfielder Madison Taylor scoring four of them.
Northwestern headed into halftime up 13-6 after the two teams traded goals to end the frame.
“They are a shooting team, they score a lot of goals, they have really great offense. Your only hope is to shut down their offense and it’s hard,” Black said. “All but the second quarter we did a good job of that.”
Alone at the top
After tying the single game assist record Butler on April 16, 2022 with seven, Schumar broke the program record by getting eight assists, the last coming with 19 seconds left.
“A big thank you to all the people that actually caught my passes and scored the goals, I definitely would not have made those assists without them,” Schumar said. “I just want to keep playing for the team and help anyway I can.”
Black said that Schumar has earned this honor.
“She’s awesome, she deserves it, she works so hard and (she) has such good vision and she deserves it.” Black said.
Steady despite the barrage
Despite facing 32 shots on goal, sophomore goalkeeper Brynna Nixon had a career-high 11 saves (.344).
“Really happy with Brynna in goal, she was solid, she was consistent, she stayed steady throughout all four quarters which was awesome,” Black said. “I’m really proud of her.”
Sophomore midfielder Lorelai VanGuilder said Nixon was a “brick-wall.”
“She absolutely killed it, like I’ve never seen her play better than that ever,” VanGuilder said. “She was making saves that I haven’t seen any goalie make before and she was ‘brick-wall Brynna’ today.”
Up Next
Marquette will finish up its two game home stand next March 5 when it plays host to Detroit Mercy 12 p.m. CST.
“We have to take care of some little details, we got to come up with more ground balls, we gotta handle the ball in transition.” Black said. “Really just fine tuning and it’s nice to have a week to do it.”
This article was written by Jackson Gross. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @JacksonGrossMU.
