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Three goals each from Caitlin Prince and Lip Lowry were the difference as Duquesne played spoiler on Saturday afternoon, defeating Marquette 11-7 in the Golden Eagles' first ever home game. MU was able to cut it to 9-7 with 17 minutes left on an Emma Kern free position strike, but MU was unable to score again. Not coincidentally, Claire Costanza, Marquette's assists leader coming in, was sent off for her second yellow card of the game with 14 minutes left when the score was 9-7. If MU could have been able to take advantage of Costanza's passing for the home stretch only down 2... well, who can say?
Lowry and Prince were both able to register goals while Marquette had a one woman advantage. Prince's made it 5-1 in the first, while Lowry's gave the Dukes a 7-3 lead in the second half. It's going to be a season of building and growth for the Golden Eagles, and they're going to need to try to avoid these kinds of issues in the future to not put themselves in bigger holes than necessary.
Six different Golden Eagles registered goals on the afternoon, led by two from Nicole Gleason. Costanza had the first MU goal in Valley Fields history in addition to MU's lone assist. Duquesne's Amanda Kidder went into the record book as the first player to score a goal in Valley Fields history when she opened up the scoring at the 25:36 mark of the first half.
This was my first ever NCAA women's lacrosse game, and the one thing that struck me is the number of fouls called. I'm not being critical of the refereeing, as I barely understand the rules at this point. I think it's a flaw in the sport when play is blown to a halt 56 times in a 60 minute game, and 30 seconds burn off the running clock while the referees clear players out for the free position restart.
How about some postgame comments from head coach Meredith Black and some highlights?
Up Next: Marquette will be back at Valley Fields next Sunday to play Detroit (0-2). One lucky student in attendance for that one will win a $200 Target gift card to "prep for Spring Break," as the athletic department puts it.