4.12 Weekend Preview: Ranked Teams At Home, 1st Year Programs On The Road

WOMEN'S LACROSSE

Last weekend did not go well for women's lacrosse. This weekend might not be better. The bad news is that both of their opponents are ranked, Georgetown at #8 and Loyola (MD) at #20. The good news is that both of the games are at home, and Marquette did stay close at home with a Rutgers team that was ranked at the time.

The Georgetown game is down at Valley Fields at 4pm today. It's Bang For Your Buck Day, meaning you can get hot dogs, sodas, and chips all for just a $1. For you out of towners, you're stuck with paying attention via live stats.

The Hoyas are 8-2 on the season and are on a three game winning streak, including identical 14-11 wins over Louisville and Loyola (MD) in their last two games. GU is undefeated in Big East play and will face off with current BE leader Notre Dame on Sunday. Sophomore Caroline Tarzian is top 10 in the conference in both goals per game (2.6, 5th) and assists per game (1.1, 10th). Junior midfielder Kelyn Freedman is no slouch on the offensive end, scoring 22 goals and helping out on five others while coming off the bench in five of the Hoyas' games. Junior Barb Black had played all but 31 minutes in goal for Georgetown this season, posting a goals-against average of 10.24, but stopping only 32% of shots on goal. Marquette needs to come out strong to start the game, as the Hoyas both do most of their scoring in the first half, but also allow more first half goals as well.

Sunday's opponent is the Greyhounds of Loyola. Game time is at noon at Valley Fields. Marquette will be honoring their four seniors before the game: players Katie Bathon, Lisa Beltramello, and Jacqueline Dubois along with manager Chloe Johnson.

Loyola is currently ranked #20 in the country in the most recent deBeer media poll, but for the life of me, I have no idea why. They're currently 5-6.

Now, in their defense, they started out the season with five games against teams that were ranked when the games were played, and they went 2-3 in those games. I can understand maintaining a ranking while losing to ranked teams. But they followed those up with losses to then and currently unranked Delaware and James Madison. They slipped six spots in the poll for this, from 12th to 18th. Again, a team that was 2-5 was ranked 18th in the country. A win over #20 at the time Louisville and a shutout of Cincinnati got them moving back up the poll, but a loss to Georgetown has them bordering on heading out for good.

They haven't been over .500 all season and somehow have managed to be ranked as one of the 20 best programs in the country the whole time. 57 women's lacrosse programs have a better winning percentage, but Loyola keeps their ranking. Something ain't right here.

In any case, they're probably going to be 5-7 by the time they get to Milwaukee, as they play #5 Notre Dame tonight. Junior midfielder and noted Australian Marlee Paton has the points lead for the Greyhounds with 27 (16G, 11A), two ahead of sophomore midfielder Taryn VanThof. Paton is also fifth in the Big East in ground balls per game with 2.36 per game, while VanThof is fourth in the conference in draw controls with 3.91 per contest. Freshman Molly Wolf has started every game in net for Loyola. Her goals-against average is 10.23 and she's stopping 39% of shots on goal.

MEN'S LACROSSE

In their last road game before finally playing the first home game in program history, men's lacrosse will take on High Point tomorrow afternoon. The game starts at noon Central, and you can get pay video here, live stats here, or in game updates from @MarquetteMLax.

This game's quite an interesting one on Marquette's schedule. High Point and Marquette are the only two first year programs in Division 1 this season, so it's nice to see the two of them face off deep into the season to get an idea of where they sit. If you want to get an idea of how they compare, you can check out this piece from College Crosse.

High Point is 3-9 on the season, with the three wins coming against Towson, Michigan, and noted Marquette victim Mercer. The Panthers also played Air Force, but suffered a 14-4 loss, which is basically the opposite of Marquette's 8-6 win over the Falcons. High Point has two other previous opponents in common with the Golden Eagles, losing 8-5 to St. Joseph's and 9-8 to Jacksonville.

The HPU runs through sophomore attacker Matt Thistle to freshman attacker Dan Lomas. Lomas has the team lead in points with 36 and lead in goals with 32. Thistle is second on the team in points with 35, but his are more evenly divided. He has a team high 18 assists and 17 goals of his own. Sophomore Austin Geisler has started all 12 HPU games, but has been lifted on six different occasions. His goals-against average is just over 12, and he's stopping 53% of the shots on goal.