Louisville Overwhelms Marquette Women’s Lacrosse

Early turnovers doomed Marquette Golden Eagles women’s lacrosse on Monday afternoon, as Louisville Cardinals scored the first eight goals of the game on the way to handing the Golden Eagles a 16-6 loss down in Kentucky. Marquette is now 1-2 on the season.

The turnovers were a very serious thing for the Golden Eagles in this one, as Erin Dowdle committed a turnover five seconds after gaining possession of the first draw control of the game. Louisville’s first three goals of the game, all in the first six minutes, all came as a result of possessions started by Marquette turnovers. There were eight Marquette turnovers before head coach Meredith Black yanked starting goalie Jules Horning for Sophia Leva. At that point, it was a 7-0 Louisville lead.

Four more Marquette turnovers would follow before Caroline Steller potted the first goal of the game for the Golden Eagles. It came with 3:18 left in the first half, and made the margin seven at 8-1. Yep, that’s 12 turnovers before a goal, and for the most part, that was pretty much that.

Both teams would score one more time before the half ended, and Marquette opened the half with goals from Shea Garcia and Hannah Greving to make it a 9-4 ball game with 27 minutes and change left to go. Honestly, given how poorly the first half had gone, this was a bit of an accomplishment, and “five goal lead disappears in 27 minutes” would not be the weirdest thing to ever happen in a lacrosse game.

And then Marquette coughed up the ball almost immediately after winning the ensuing draw and Louisville scored to make it 10-4.

And then the Cardinals played make it/take it lacrosse and tacked on two more.

12-4, 25:40 to go.

“Eight goal lead disappears in 25 minutes” is a totally different proposition.

Lydia Foust threw in a free position goal for the Golden Eagles quickly thereafter, but Louisville would add three more goals while holding MU without one for nearly 8 minutes. Greving’s goal with 17:46 to play made it 15-6, and it would be Marquette’s last goal of the game.

Marquette solved their turnover problem in the second half, committing just six. However, it was too little, too late at that point. MU’s offense was pretty solid, getting 16 of their 23 shots on frame, but 10 saves from the Cardinals, including nine by starter Rachel Florek, prevented the Golden Eagles from making this one more interesting.

Steller and Greving both had two goals to lead the way for Marquette on the offensive end, both in points and goals. Maria Mulvihill came off the bench to top the field players in ground balls with three, and Jules Horning snared four GBs as she opened and then also closed the game in the final 13 minutes. Dowdle led the way for Marquette on draws, snagging six, which was the best mark in the game.

Up Next: It’ll be a two-game homestand for the Golden Eagles next weekend. They’ll host Canisius on Friday afternoon before welcoming Niagara to Valley Fields on Sunday afternoon. The Griffins are 0-3 on the year, including a 10-9 home loss to new Division 1 squad Merrimack on Sunday, while the Purple Eagles are 0-2 with road losses to Boston University and Harvard. They’ll host that Merrimack squad on Thursday before coming to Milwaukee.