For Marquette women’s lacrosse’s (1-0) season-opener, it was hard to tell what there was more of in Mount Pleasant: snowflakes or Golden Eagle goals—and the flurries were heavy.
With the help of an 11-0 scoring run in the first half, a suffocating defense and outshooting Central Michigan 38-11, Marquette checked out early and secured a 17-5 win over the Chippewas (0-2).
Despite goalie troubles and a snow game, the Golden Eagles were dominating in every aspect of this matchup.
OH YEAH BLIZZARD CONDITIONS
@MarquetteWLax out here doing playing some snow lacrosse. pic.twitter.com/9ViQNpxQII
— USA Lacrosse Magazine (@USALacrosseMag) February 12, 2025
A flying start for the Golden Eagles
The snow flurries and 24-degree chills must’ve encouraged Marquette to get a running clock and get out of there as soon as possible, because only 90 seconds in, the Golden Eagles netted two goals thanks to senior attacker Meg Bireley and sophomore midfielder Lauren Grady.
With 11:07 left to play in the first, junior attacker Isabelle Casucci used her height to grab the ball up high and make a bouncing shot to put Marquette on top 3-0. Central Michigan at once took a timeout to try and break the momentum, but it didn’t do a thing.
The Chippewas wouldn’t win a draw control until six minutes in and wouldn’t make their first shot until just over seven minutes in. With Marquette’s full field zone press, Central Michigan was barely able to get the ball past midfield without turning it over during the first half. There were also multiple times where the Golden Eagles used a full field man press to smother the goalie and force bad passes that they could capitalize on.
With 7:09 left to play in the half, sophomore midfielder Eileen Dooley got a free position attempt. As she was crashing the right side of the net and three defenders collapsed on her, she flipped it to Bireley who was attacking the left side. Bireley whipped the ball in the net for Marquette’s 11th unanswered goal. She would end up scoring four of them in the first half.
MU 11 | CMU 0 | 1Q 7:09 pic.twitter.com/iUv64JIrs2
— Marquette Women’s Lacrosse (@MarquetteWLax) February 12, 2025
During this 11-0 run, Central Michigan’s defenders gave too much space directly around the net for the Golden Eagles to work with. The Chippewas never collapsed in time to stop Marquette charges and couldn’t stay down low enough to stop quick passes to Golden Eagle attackers that were a step ahead of their defenders near the net.
Marquette outshot the Chippewas 14-3 during the run and saw seven unique scorers contribute to its large lead. The Golden Eagles would score once more before the end of the half.
Marquette switches goalies at half
The biggest reason that the Golden Eagles were up by so much, so early, was because they hadn’t had to deal with the Chippewas’ offense a great deal yet. After making three saves early, senior goalie Brynna Nixon started to struggle when Central Michigan’s offense won four draw controls in a row. She let in two goals within two minutes to make the score 12-2 Marquette going into the second half.
For the second half, Black would turn towards Marquette’s go-to secondary goalie, sophomore Mikayla Yang. During her 30 minutes in net, Yang faced five shots, let in three goals and only grabbed one save.
Goalkeeping was a problem towards the end of last season and is something that will be worth watching as the season progresses.
Up Next
Marquette will be at Valley Fields for its home-opener against Louisville on Feb. 17 at 12 p.m. CST.
This recap was written by Ben Hanson. He can be reached at benjamin.hanson@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @benhansonMU.
