4.5 Weekend Preview: Two And One

MEN'S LACROSSE

Marquette follows up their neutral site game against #4/5 Notre Dame with a trip to play #3/3 Denver. The game's at 8pm Central time tonight. You can follow the game by dropping some cash for video, following live stats here, or checking in with @MarquetteMLax on Twitter.

The Pioneers are 7-2 on the season and on a two game winning streak, including an 11-10 overtime win over Air Force, whom you'll remember was the victim in Marquette's first ever win. DU is battle tested with six games against ranked opponents this season, and they've come away with a 4-2 record in those contests.

Senior attacker Eric Law and sophomore midfielder Wesley Berg are far and away the points leaders for Denver. Law has the overall lead on 18 goals and a team high 21 assists, while Berg is right behind him with a team high 29 goals and seven assists. It's not like the rest of the team is slacking off, either. Three more Pioneers have already broken into double digits in goals. Sophomore Ryan LaPlante has started eight of DU's nine games, but junior Jamie Faus has seen action in six of those games, racking up more than 3 full games worth of net time in the process. LaPlante has a goals-against average of 10.04 and he's stopping 56% of the shots on goal.

WOMEN'S LACROSSE

After 11 days off, women's lacrosse returns to action with two games in three days. First up is a contest with Cincinnati tonight at 6pm Central. The Bearcats will be streaming the game live, but you'll have to pay to see it. If you don't want to subscribe to that (and I don't blame you), you can check out live stats here or get in game updates from @MarquetteWLax.

Cincinnati is 5-4 on the season. They snapped a two game losing streak with a 16-6 win over Detroit last Friday. You'll remember Detroit from Marquette's last win back on March 3. The Bearcats have also played a game against Coastal Carolina, the other team that MU beat this year, and they came away with a 13-8 win in that contest.

The Bearcats have four players with at least 10 goals on the season, led by 20 from junior midfielder Taylor Young. While they've been able to find the back of the net at a fairly decent clip, they haven't been doing it through passing. They have 97 goals on the season, but only have assists on 28% of those goals. Sophomore Ashley Helmrath has the team lead in assists with nine, which is a full one-third of the team total. Freshman goalie Meg Gulmi has started all nine games and played all but 58 minutes for the Bearcats, stopping 42% of the shots on goal while posting a goals-against average of 11.30.

After the game with the Bearcats, MU will make the 2 hour trip to the southwest to play Louisville on Sunday. That game will get started at 11am Central, and will only have live stats available to keep track of it.

The Cardinals are 7-3 on the season, with two of those losses coming in their last two games, both in Big East play. Louisville also has a game against Detroit this season, which was a 19-2 win at Detroit.

Junior midfielder Nikki Boltja (33G, 7A) has a 40-39 lead on senior midfielder Katie Oliverio (15G, 24A) for the team lead in points. Freshman midfielder Kaylin Morissette is third and she's doing that only with goals, racking up 26 on the season. Junior goalie Ashley Herbst has played the wide majority of minutes in net for the Cardinals, posting a goals-against average of 8.12 and a save percentage of .427 in the process.