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Inside Lacrosse published the results of their NCAA men’s lacrosse 2020 preseason poll on Wednesday, and Marquette did not receive a single vote. That’s not a surprise. The Golden Eagles finished last year under .500 and lost a whole mess of players on both offense and defense.
It should also not be a surprise to you to find out that Marquette will be playing a bunch of teams that are either ranked or earning votes in the preseason poll. Three of the four ranked teams on the slate for MU are in the top 10 of the rankings, and there are three more teams that earned at least one vote in the balloting.
Let’s dig into it, shall we?
Duke is the top ranked Marquette opponent to start the year, coming in at #7. They’re followed quickly behind by Notre Dame at #8 and Denver at #9. As is seemingly tradition at this point, that collection of games are three of MU’s final four games of the year. Georgetown is the other ranked team on the slate this year, starting off at #16.
Down in the receiving votes department, you’ll find Villanova, Michigan, and Robert Morris. If you’re sitting here thinking “holy crap this is a crazy lineup how will Marquette survive this,” I have four things to say to you. 1) Calm down, it’s just a game. 2) Marquette already tangled with #12 Ohio State, #13 Johns Hopkins, and RV Richmond as part of their preseason exhibition schedule, so they’re well aware of what it’s going to take. 3) The seven games against the teams earning IL votes to start the season are all in Marquette’s final nine games of the season. Only a road game at St. John’s and Senior Day against Providence on either side of the home date with Notre Dame break up that string. 4) Marquette will start the season with five games that aren’t against teams getting preseason poll votes, so they’ve got a minute or two to spool themselves up to speed.
To that end, Marquette starts the season this coming Saturday, February 1, with a visit to Cleveland State. First draw is set for 10 am, and it appears as if those monsters will not be streaming this game in any fashion. How dare they.
You can check out the entire preseason top 20 right here.