Marquette men’s lacrosse has been through a lot this season.
Adversity has shown up in all shapes and sizes, with injuries and a mixed bag of results making for a tumultuous start to the season. But despite that, the Golden Eagles’ only Big East loss is on the road at No. 12 Georgetown.
“I think at this point of the season, we’ve kind of seen every situation possible,” head coach Jake Richard said. “We’ve played really good teams really close. We’ve gotten crushed by really good teams.
“We’ve played teams we should beat really close and we’ve beat teams we should beat pretty well. And we’ve done it with and without different personnel at all times.”
The personnel has looked a lot different specifically over the last three weeks, starting with junior attacker Tucker Mullen and senior midfielder Mike Piraino being out heading into MU’s game against Providence on March 28.
Then, senior attacker Matt Caputo and junior long stick midfielder/defender Bradley Johnson both suffered knee injuries during the game against the Friars — meaning four of MU’s key contributors were sitting on the sideline.
But up stepped junior attacker Ethan Salvia and sophomore defender Colin Maloney, determined not to let the Golden Eagles lose their opening game of Big East play.
With the Golden Eagles down four scores with 13 minutes to play in regulation, Salvia netted two goals that were 45 seconds apart to cut the lead in half. The blue & gold battled to get the game to overtime — where Salvia scored tallied his career-high seventh point of the day courtesy of a game-winning overtime goal.
FINAL: MARQUETTE 14, PROVIDENCE 13
Salvia nets the game winner for #mulax in overtime. On a day where multiple starters were out and others left the game with injury, the Golden Eagles never quit.
What a way to open up Big East play. Recap to come. pic.twitter.com/9qPzzjCBAE
— Matthew Baltz (@MatthewBaltzMU) March 28, 2026
“It was pretty surreal,” Salvia recalled of the game-winner. “Having my parents there was pretty cool, and my little brother — who’s like my one of my best friends — was there too. It was the first game he’s been able to make it to this year, but really it was cool to have them all there.”
Maloney was all over the place on the defensive end against PC, scooping up a game-high and career-high eight ground balls while adding a caused turnover. He was a big part of securing possessions for the Golden Eagles throughout the entire game, but especially during the fourth quarter. Maloney also added his first collegiate point on an assist.
The performances landed the duo on the Big East weekly honor roll for the first time in their careers.
Mullen and Piraino returned for Marquette’s April 4 contest against St. John’s, but Caputo and Johnson remained out. Once again, the Golden Eagles were in need of an unusual hero if they wanted to start 2-0 in the Big East for the first time since 2022. And, this time, senior attacker Andrew Bowman and senior defender Calvin Hicks answered the call.
Bowman finished the game with a career-high four points (two goals and two assists), helping MU to a 12-11 win in double overtime.
“When a guy like Caputo goes down, I’m just thinking how bad I want to play for him,” Bowman said. “I want to come out on top because I love that guy and I want to play for our team.”
Hicks’ impact on Marquette’s defensive unit goes far beyond what the box score shows. The senior has been just short of cracking the rotation for several years now according to Richard. But now that Johnson is out, Hicks has become an important part of the Golden Eagles’ defense.
“He’s made some really great plays for us,” Richard said. “He was big in that Providence game in particular.”
Hicks, Bowman, Maloney and Saliva didn’t have any starts heading into Big East play. While Bowman and Hicks had appeared in games at different times over the course of their career at Marquette, Maloney and Salvia were yet to play in a game coming into this season.
Now, all four have been thrust into roles on a team that is fighting for a chance to play in the Big East tournament and beyond.
“It’s kind of been an extension of the year,” Richard said. “The only way we’re going to get through things is together. And what that looks like on gameday has been different every week.”
Despite stumbling in a 17-7 loss at Georgetown on April 11, the Golden Eagles are tied for second place in the conference standings with Villanova — both teams boasting 2-1 records. The Wildcats travel to Milwaukee to face Marquette on Saturday.
“We’ve been a bit behind the eight ball in the tiebreaker scenario for the last three years,” Richard said. “and so it was really important we were playing our best come Big East play to put ourselves ahead of the eight ball for once in terms of tie breaking scenarios.”
This story was written by Matthew Baltz. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @MatthewBaltzMU.
