Marquette Women’s Lacrosse Stumbles Against #12 Northwestern

There’s an ancient proverb that I don’t really know the origin of, but I think it applies to Marquette‘s women’s lacrosse contest against #12 Northwestern down in Evanston on Saturday afternoon.

It goes something like this:

“Don’t get outscored 11-4 in a 20 minute span in a lacrosse game.”

That’s an accurate description of the final two-thirds of the first half, as the game went from knotted at two each at the 19:37 mark to 13-6 favoring the Wildcats at halftime. Past that, it was purely academic as Northwestern scored 26 seconds into the second half and never trailed by fewer than eight the rest of the way, winning 20-9 and denying Marquette yet another opportunity to defeat a ranked foe for the first time. Marquette drops to 4-4 on the season with the loss.

The first 10 minutes was pretty good for Marquette. They actually outshot Northwestern 6-5, and both teams were tied for turnovers with four each. The score was tied at two after Allison Lane scored her first of the game, and it almost seemed like we were going to get a solid contest here.

Nope. Northwestern scored the next seven goals of the game, including a pair from Claire Quinn, to make it 9-2. Credit where credit is due, Marquette did not just roll over. The Golden Eagles got the next three markers, two from Charlotte McGuire and one from Grace Gabriel to make it a 9-5 game and give MU a flicker of life. Four straight from the Wildcats snuffed out that flame, and only a Lane goal with three seconds left in the half interrupted what was otherwise another seven goal streak from the home team.

That left the score 16-6 with 26:01 to play, but it activated the running clock by way of the 10 goal margin. At that point, the clock was Marquette’s biggest enemy, and the minutes just ticked away from them too fast to be able to do anything about the score. Yes, McGuire nipped the lead back to nine, but that was after 10 minutes had disappeared. Kate Paliotta pushed the margin back to double digits at 18-8 with 8:39 to go, and that was that.

Lane and Gabriel both recorded the 100th points of their collegiate careers in the game, become the sixth and seventh players respectively to hit the century mark for the Golden Eagles. Lane finished the day with two goals on four shots, while Gabriel had four of Marquette’s nine markers on nine shots plus an assist. Head coach Meredith Black put any questions about the goaltending situation from the Niagara game to bed by giving Julianna Horning the full 60 minutes in net in this one. The sophomore made 14 saves to do her part to keep the score respectable.

The Wildcats did an amazing job spreading the ball around in a 20 goal performance, as only Taylor Pinzone had a hat trick, and only four other players had two goals.

Up Next: Onwards to league play for the Golden Eagles, as they’ll play nothing but Big East foes the rest of the way this season. They’ll start out the conference slate by hosting Cincinnati this coming Sunday at Valley Fields, with first draw set for noon. The Bearcats are 6-1 on the season with only a 15-9 loss to Louisville in their season opener marring their record.