Marquette Men's Lacrosse Downs #16 Lehigh, 10-9

Thanks to a hat trick from Jordan Greenfield in his Marquette debut and a timely goal late in the fourth quarter from Kyle Whitlow, Marquette emerged from the 2015 season opener with a 10-9 win over #16 Lehigh.  It's the first time that Marquette has won their season opener in the three years of program history, and, probably more importantly, it's the first win over a ranked opponent in program history.

The turning point in the game came in the third quarter.  Lehigh's Sam Lawrence (illegal check) and Ray Mastroianni (slashing) got called for penalties in rapid fashion, sending Marquette to a 6-on-4 man up situation.  This was made even better for MU when Lukas Mikelinich got rung up for pushing less than 30 seconds later, turning it into a 6-on-3 opportunity.  Greenfield closed out his hat trick 17 seconds later to give the Golden Eagles a 6-4 lead, and shortly after all the penalties expired, Andy DeMichiei capitalized on the burst of momentum on a feed from Whitlow to push the lead to three for the first (and only) time in the game.

Lehigh would crawl back into the game, scoring three of the next four goals.  The second of Dan Taylor's three goals cut the MU lead to 8-7 with 8:28 left in the game.  The teams would trade goals in rapid fashion after that, with Marquette's final goal coming off the stick of Whitlow after a pushing penalty was whistled on the Mountain Hawks' Matt Raposo.

Lehigh would get on the board one last time on a goal from Kurtis Kaunas with 1:53 remaining, but Liam Byrnes would dig up the ground ball on the ensuing face off, and the Golden Eagles were able to hold on for the win.

Greenfield and Taylor both scored five points for their respective teams, with both men tallying three goals and two assists.  Greenfield made the biggest dent in the game when he recorded a point on three straight Marquette goals in a span of less than four minutes that gave MU their first lead of the game.  Jimmy Danaher made 10 saves for the Golden Eagles to pick up the win, while Matt Poillon made eight saves in the Lehigh net.

Up Next: Marquette looks to continue the best start in program history when they travel to Hofstra next weekend.  It will be the season opener for the Pride, which was also the case last season when Marquette recorded what might have been the biggest win in program history at the time.