Marquette Women's Lacrosse Preview: at Michigan

After two straight ranked opponents to start the season, Marquette women's lacrosse gets to downshift to a Michigan squad that's one year behind them in the developmental stage.  That makes this the first game this season that you'd feel comfortable picking MU to win.

Sure, Marquette ended up playing #17 Johns Hopkins close after fighting off a bit of jet lag just five hours after arriving in Baltimore for the game.  No one was going to pick the Golden Eagles to pull the upset against the Blue Jays before the game, though, just like no one would have expected MU to be able to down Louisville the week before.

While you might think that this is a great chance for Marquette to get the win against third year Michigan, that's not necessarily the case.  Marquette and Michigan have met in each of UM's first two seasons, and they've split the meetings.  Marquette won the first meeting by bouncing back from a 5-0 hole to score seven straight and take control of the game for a 12-10 win in Michigan.  Last season, down at Valley Fields, Marquette had a 6-2 lead at the half before Michigan ran wild with eight unanswered goals to open the second half on their way to a 10-7 win.  Marquette didn't score in the second half of that one until there was just six seconds left and nowhere near enough time to mount a comeback.

So it's probably not going to be easy to beat the Wolverines here.  Marquette will need to bottle the kind of energy and enthusiasm that gave them a 6-4 lead on Hopkins in the second half.  Getting two quick goals to open the half from Allison Lane wouldn't hurt, either.

Game #3: at Michigan (1-2)

When: Sunday, February 21, 2016, at 12pm Central
Where: Oosterbaan Field House in Ann Arbor, MI
Audio/Visual: No video, so I guess that B1G money is just being wasted.  Live stats are available here.
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteWLax

After seasons of 4-13 and 5-2, Michigan has started off 2016 with a win and two losses, and in that order, too.  They stomped Central Michigan in their opener, shutting out the Chippewas for over 36 minutes before allowing a goal on the way to a 14-1 win.  They've dumped both of their last two games by a final margin of 12-11, and one of those games is more impressive than the other.  Michigan led #7 Florida 11-8 with six minutes left before the Gators showed why they are the preseason favorites in the Big East and snapped off four straight goals to win, including the winner from Sammi Burgess with 10 seconds remaining.  They followed that up with a loss by the same margin to Oregon on Friday night.  The Ducks scored four goals in the final five minutes of the first half at Oosterbaan Field House and broke the ice on the second half to take a 10-7 lead on their way to that win.

Jess Angerman was the primary scorer for Michigan against Marquette a year ago, recording a hat trick in just a shade over 30 minutes of elapsed game time.  The junior from Shoreham, NY, is back again this season and is leading the Wolverine attack with nine points on the season.  Her eight goals are a team high, and she's taken just 16 shots to get there.  Angerman is second on the team in assists, but that's mostly because the season's so young.  Angerman has just one assist, while classmate Anna Scheuler has three helpers on the season to lead the team.

Freshman Mira Shane has started all three games in net for Michigan, but she was lifted at halftime of the Oregon game for Allison Silber.  I'm not sure that Shane was really at fault for the 9-7 score favoring the Ducks at halftime there, but that's what head coach Jennifer Ulehla felt.  Silber was the keeper for all of Michigan's first 30 games in their first two seasons before being supplanted by Shane at the start of this season.  Shane is allowing 8.75 goals per 60 minutes while stopping 46% of the shots on net.  Silber allowed three goals in her 30 minutes of action and stopped 63% of the shots on frame while trying to guide the Wolverines through their comeback.