Marquette Women’s Lacrosse Ends 2017 With A Win Over Vanderbilt

After a lightning delay moved the game indoors, Marquette women’s lacrosse scored four of the final six goals of the game to get a 14-12 victory over Vanderbilt on Sunday afternoon. The Golden Eagles finish the 2017 schedule with a record of 6-11 and 4-5 in Big East action.

Lightning in the area caused a stoppage after Allison Lane scored her third goal of the game for Marquette to knot the game at 10 goals each with just under 15 minutes left to play. Whether it was the two teams being familiar with each other after 45 minutes of action or the over an hour long delay to move the game inside Vanderbilt’s football practice facility, it took the two teams a while to get back in an offensive rhythm again. The first indoor goal was scored by Vanderbilt, with MacKenzie Lange putting the Commodores out in front with less than nine minutes left.

Marquette responded well to the VU advantage, as Charlotte McGuire scored on a feed from Amanda Bochniak less than 45 seconds later, and then Grace Gabriel beat Callahan Kent less than 45 seconds after that to put the Golden Eagles up 12-11. From there, Marquette made a defensive stand and used a Vanderbilt penalty to burn off some more time to hold onto their lead. Eventually, McGuire found the back of the net for her third goal of the game, which was quickly followed with Julianna Shearer’s third of the game to put MU up 14-11 with two minutes left. That would be enough of a lead to survive to the final horn, even with the ‘Dores scoring with 10 seconds remaining.

Shearer’s third goal of the game gave her 55 for the season, which is a new Marquette single season record. Shearer is the first Golden Eagle to score 40 and 50 goals in a season, and she didn’t even need her three goals on the day in order to clinch the 2017 Big East scoring title, as she was the only woman to score more than 45 goals in the league.

That wasn’t the only record Shearer set on Sunday in her final collegiate contest. She now has 115 career goals, extending her program record in that department. Shearer also finished the season with 109 shots, which smashes the previous single season record of 74. With three goals and an assist in the game, she finishes 2017 with an even 60 points, making her the first Golden Eagle to hit that single season mark as well.

Shearer wasn’t the only record setting Golden Eagle, either. Grace Gabriel had five draw controls to extend her single season record to 81, and Claire Costanza extended two program records that she already held. Her four assists on the day moved her to an even 100 helpers in her career, the first Golden Eagle to hit triple digits. Her passing also extended her career record in points to 166. Costanza is no longer Marquette’s single season assists leader, though, as she came into the game tied with Amanda Bochniak for a new record of 27, but Bochniak finished the game with five to move to 32, one more than Costanza’s 31.

The Golden Eagles did not qualify for the Big East tournament, so this game was the finale for the season, and the farewell for Marquette’s nine seniors: Devyn Antolini, Alina Atayan, Megan Bianco, Amanda Bochniak, Claire Costanza, Fran Meyer, Julianna Shearer, Taylor Smith and Meghan Wilson. THANK YOU to all of you for everything that you have put into the program over the past four years. MU women’s lacrosse is on an upward trajectory and it couldn’t have happened without all of your hard work, including multiple injury rehabs. You have put your stamp onto the program and it will be a long time before the records that you’ve set will be broken.