Women's Lacrosse: Colorado 13, Marquette 5

After a relatively closely contested first half, Colorado outscored Marquette women's lacrosse 6-1 after halftime en route to a 13-5 victory.  The Golden Eagles fall to 0-2 on the season, while Colorado moves to 1-1.

The game was radically altered with two minutes left in the first half, when the referees issued a yellow card to Marquette's Elizabeth Goslee.  It was the second card for Goslee, which then caused her ejection from the game, with Marquette trailing 6-4.  Losing the Golden Eagles' All-American defender that early in the game would have been an obvious drawback in any situation, but it was the specific call that particularly irritates me here.  Goslee was whistled for a foul on Colorado's Molly Rovzar, and I didn't see any particularly egregious activity from Goslee.  She had her stick parallel to the ground and didn't really use it to strike Rovzar.  What may have caused the card is what happened to Rovzar.  In an attempt to dodge Goslee, something gave out on Rovzar.  I'm not sure if it was her knee or her ankle, but Rovzar went down in a heap and eventually had to be carted off the field.  Rovzar's injury was not a result of anything that Goslee did, and I don't have any idea how that was worth of a card, especially when it was going to be Goslee's second card of the game.

When Biz was ejected from the game, Marquette had fought their way back into the game.  Colorado opened up the game with three straight goals in the first six minutes, with two coming from Darby Kiernan.  Goslee would actually end up as the player who broke the run, using a free position shot to get MU on the board for the first time.  After a Johnna Fusco goal for CU, Marquette would get the next two goals to make it 4-3, including an extra woman goal from Claire Costanza after a yellow card on Katie Macleay.  The two teams would trade goals, with Julianna Shearer making it 5-4 on a goal from straight on in the slot.

From there, Colorado would score the next eight goals of the game.  Two came before the half, including Marie Moore cashing in on the second card on Goslee right before the break.  The six goals in the second half were all spread out across the majority of the 30 minutes, with Colorado slowly pulling away from MU.  Marquette would get one last goal from Nicole Gleason before time expired to reserve some pride for the Golden Eagles.

Fusco led the day with six points on four goals and two assists, while Gleason had her first two goals of the season to lead MU in points.  Marquette's goalies split the game down the middle, with Sarah Priem taking the loss after not making a save in the first half, while Emma Salter made 11 saves in the second half to stop things from getting completely out of control.  Paige Soenksen made 10 saves for the Buffaloes to pick up the win.

Up Next: Things don't get easier for the Golden Eagles.  Coming up on Saturday, they host Northwestern at noon on National Marquette Day.  The Wildcats are ranked #5 in the country right now and are 2-0 including a win over #7 Virginia.