For Marquette women’s lacrosse (4-6), Friday wasn’t just an opportunity to get a win, it was a chance for the team to get their first consecutive win of the season.
Despite starting slow, three unique hat tricks propelled the Golden Eagles over Central Michigan (1-9), 17-6, at Valley Fields.
“I thought we were able to build momentum and keep it throughout. Even when it was a closer game,” Marquette head coach Meredith Black said. “There was a long period of time where it was a two goal game, but we felt that we were in control in those moments, so that was great.”
Marquette pushes back harder… a lot harder
Marquette opened the game with a 4-1 run on Central Michigan. It spanned over two quarters, 12 minutes and included three-time Big East Attacker of the Week, junior attacker Meg Bireley, scoring her 40th goal of the season.
Meg finds the back of the net💪#WeAreMarquette pic.twitter.com/8ohuOJ1h1D
— Marquette Women’s Lacrosse (@MarquetteWLax) March 22, 2024
After Central Michigan took a timeout, they collected themselves and started to push back. With two goals of their own, the Chippewas would make the score 5-3.
“No matter how the game ends up, in the first quarter of women’s lacrosse it’s tough to pull ahead by a significant number,” Black said. “We just needed to feel them out and understand what they’re going to do on offense. Getting beat sometimes teaches us quickly what we need to do and what we need to expect.”
Marquette didn’t take this sitting down and only 26 seconds later created momentum. First-year attacker CJ Meehan, pushed towards the back corner of the goal, rolled off her defender and pushed the ball in over the shoulder of Chippewa goalie, Alexa Martel.
CJ with the spin and shoot🌪️#WeAreMarquette pic.twitter.com/tH0I2RPfPN
— Marquette Women’s Lacrosse (@MarquetteWLax) March 22, 2024
In the second quarter, Marquette would have 17 shots compared to Central Michigan’s four.
This gave the Golden Eagles the push to create eight unanswered goals en route to the 11-point win.
“I think going into this week, we are finally putting together things that we’re working on,” Bireley said. ” We were really excited for this game and we wanted to show all the things we’ve been working on in the past few weeks because we’ve really been improving over the season.”
The 2023 season compared to now
After going 9-1 in the first 10 games of last season, Marquette sits 4-6 this season. They just now got their first consecutive wins of the season after this game.
“I think we have to bring energy and connection to each game [to get more wins], so it’s all the controllable stuff,” Black said. “Our skill is there. We’re young, so we’re still learning a lot and we’re still working through things.
“We have to know that’s going to happen and accept that while still taking care of the controllables like energy, hustle, work ethic, and connection.”
Up next
Marquette will stay at home to play No. 3 Michigan on Sunday at 12 p.m. CST in their last non-conference game of the year.
This article was written by Ben Hanson. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @benhansonMU.
