Marquette Women’s Lacrosse Secures A Win Over Kennesaw State

A trio of hat tricks paved the way to Marquette women’s lacrosse scoring a 15-10 win over Kennesaw State on Sunday afternoon. The Golden Eagles are now 2-2 on the season after recording two wins over the weekend.

The Owls are now 0-3 on the season, including a home loss to a first year Arizona State team in the opener, so it feels like 15-10 may not have been Marquette’s best possible performance. 34 fouls by the Golden Eagles probably did not help things out, especially when compared to 21 for KSU, and Kennesaw’s advantage on draws, winning 15 of 27, also helped keep the Owls involved. The two teams were mostly even on turnovers, 21 for the Owls, 20 for the Golden Eagles, but you’d have to figure one turnover every minute and a half favored the visiting team to a degree.

Let’s be clear here: Marquette scored the first three goals of the game and never relinquished the lead. Sure, KSU answered with three goals in less than two minutes to tie the game at three, but that was also the last time that the game was tied. Marquette stemmed the tide for a bit, as merely stopping up Kennesaw State was important, and then Charlotte McGuire scored on a free position shot to put Marquette back out in front. Caroline Steller followed that up with a goal of her own 33 seconds later, and the game was never tied again.

The two teams traded goals the rest of the quarter before McGuire scored her third goal of the game with 19 seconds left to put the Golden Eagles up 8-6. Things got much better for Marquette to start the second half, with MU potting four goals over the first 15 minutes to slowly drag their lead out to 12-6, which was ended up being too much for Kennesaw State to match. Sure, the Owls put together another quick three goal burst to pull within 12-9, but by then, there was less than 11 minutes left. Riley Hill scored one of her three goals in the game with nine minutes and change remaining to bump the lead back to four, and goals from McGuire and Grace Gabriel in the closing minutes provided the insurance.

McGuire was Marquette’s lead scorer on the day, matching her career high in goals with four. Hill and Gabriel both posted hat tricks, continuing an outstanding start to the season for both women. Hill has five goals and seven assists on the season, which has her second on the team in points..... to Gabriel, who leads the way with 15 goals and one assist. Head coach Meredith Black split the goalkeeping duties between her two netminders, with Julianna Horning getting the start and making four saves in the first half, while Sophia Leva covered the second half while making five saves.

Up Next: Marquette will take a week off before returning to the Andy Glockner Memorial Bubble for their next game. They’ll be hosting Stetson with first draw scheduled for noon Central. The Hatters are 0-2 on the season after falling to #16 Notre Dame 21-7 on Sunday. Stetson also holds a loss to first year program Arizona State, dropping a 15-13 decision at home.