Marquette Women’s Lacrosse Starts Off Big East Play With A Win Over Cincinnati

A five goal day from Riley Hill and a seven point day from Amanda Bochniak guided Marquette women’s lacrosse to victory on Sunday afternoon, defeating Cincinnati, 16-10, in the Big East opener for both teams.

The Golden Eagles got off to the hot start with two goals in the first five minutes, but UC swung back with three of the next four goals to tie it at three each after 13 minutes. The two squads traded goals over the next 10 minutes, moving it to 5-5. Hill’s third goal of the game gave MU the advantage again, and Megan Menzuber’s second career goal pushed the lead back to two for the first time since it was 3-1. That didn't last, though, as Cincy’s Monica Borzillo snuck in one more Bearcat goal before the half was over.

After a 13 goal first half, it took the two teams more than six minutes to break the ice on the second half as Elaina Enich scored for Cincy to give the game its fourth tie.

That 7-7 score would also be the last tie of the game. Julianna Shearer scored her first of the game just 17 seconds after Enich’s marker, and Grace Gabriel got her first of the game followed by Hill’s fourth to extend MU’s advantage to 10-7. Yet again, the Bearcats scored three of the next four goals, and they burned more than eight minutes off the clock to do it. When Jayde Sains found the back of the net with 11:58 remaining to make it 11-10, the outcome was very much in doubt.

That’s when Marquette’s offense and defense kicked into high gear. Over the next two minutes, the Golden Eagles would get three goals from three different women - Menzuber, Shearer, and Bochniak - and then they turned it over to the defense. Freshman Jules Horning, making her first career start, came up huge for Marquette on UC’s next possession. The Bearcats rifled off five shots in a 100 second span, with two going wide and the other ones getting knocked aside by Horning For three of her 14 saves on the day.

Marquette got two more goals in the final six minutes from Bochniak, and Horning made two more saves for good measure to lock down the win.

Hill’s six point day - she had an assist on one of Bochniak’s late goals - and Bochniak’s four goal, three assist performances are the highlights of the day for the offense, but Julianna Shearer now sits on the doorstep of history. Her two goals in the second half gave her 87 for her career, leaving her one shy of Hayley Baas’ program record of 88.

Up Next: The Golden Eagles have one more road game in their seven game tour of the country. Next Saturday, they’ll be out in Philadelphia to take on Temple. The Owls are 7-2 this season after dropping their Big East opener to Denver on Sunday.