Marquette Women’s Lacrosse Executed The Game Plan Against Butler

On Wednesday afternoon, Marquette women’s lacrosse had one goal: Beat Butler as fast as possible to get out of the cold and extend their Big East winning streak to six straight games.

Mission accomplished.

With a wind chill hovering around 20 degrees thanks to a 20 mile an hour wind, Marquette snapped off 12 goals in the first half to take a dominating lead, activated the running clock just 42 seconds into the second half, and waltzed on home with a 19-3 victory over the Bulldogs in a crisp one hour and 45 minutes.

The good news: Marquette is now 4-0 in Big East play for the first time ever, and they’ve won six straight games against Big East opponents for the first time ever. The even better news: Marquette is now 8-4 on the season, giving them a record high for wins in a season in program history, and there’s still five regular season games left to go. The mediocre news: #8 Florida trounced Temple on Wednesday afternoon, so the Golden Eagles are still locked in a tie with the Gators for first place in the Big East.

While Marquette did win easily, there was a brief moment midway through the first half where things were still competitive. The Golden Eagles uncorked five goals in the first 10 minutes, all from different women, to take a 5-0 lead. Ashley Guerra put the Dawgs on the board to snap the run, and then a little later on, BU got two goals less than 90 seconds apart to make it a 5-3 game at just two seconds past the quarterpole.

MU head coach Meredith Black called timeout at that point, and this may go down as the most effective timeout in the history of recorded sports. At that particular moment, Butler was now outshooting Marquette 9-8, with the swing on their third goal providing the advantage.

Marquette outshot Butler 27-5 in the remaining 45 minutes of the game and never allowed another goal for the rest of the game.

Allison Lane would restore MU’s five goal margin less than four minutes after Butler’s third and ultimately final goal of the game, and Logan Dobratz beat the buzzer to make it 12-3 at the half. That made it seven straight over the final 13+ minutes, and after Lindsey Willcocks won the first draw of the second half, Grace Gabriel threw in one of her six goals in the game to put Marquette up 10 and activate the running clock for the remainder of the contest. Marquette would score six times in total over the first 20 minutes of the second half with the clock never stopping for any reason, and that was that. Caroline Steller’s marker with 43 seconds left was just the cherry on top.

Julianna Horning continued her run of outstanding play in the Marquette net, wielding her stick to make six saves in the first half and another one after the break before yielding to freshman Sophia Leva for the final 20 minutes. Gabriel’s fantastic day on the field wasn’t just limited to her goals. The junior midfielder also had six ground balls, five caused turnovers, and four draw controls. With six goals in this game, she’s now up to 49 on the season, just six short of the MU single season record as well as six short of the all-time career record.

Up Next: It’s kind of a quick turnaround for the Golden Eagles, but at least it’s not a road trip. They’ll be back in action on Sunday, April 8, when they host Vanderbilt at Valley Fields. The Commodores are now 8-4 on the season and one of two teams tied for third place in the Big East at 3-1 after beating Cincinnati by 11 on Wednesday. If Marquette can get a win off the ‘Dores, it will set up a meeting of the unbeatens in the Big East down in Gainesville on April 14.