Marquette Women’s Lacrosse Loses A Wild Season Opener Against Cincinnati

A sock trick from Megan Menzuber and hat tricks from Emma Soccodato and Lydia Foust are the highlights of Marquette women’s lacrosse’s 2021 season opener, but unfortunately, the game goes as a loss for the Golden Eagles. Cincinnati scored three goals in the final four minutes, including the game winner with 22 seconds to go, to turn a 19-17 Marquette lead to a 20-19 Bearcats victory. MU drops to 0-1 to start their campaign.

And it started so well, too.

After three minutes and five seconds had wound off the clock down in Ohio, Marquette had already scored four goals, including one with an extra woman on the field thanks to a yellow card against Alyssa Adams. Oh, irony of ironies, Adams would be the one to score the game winner 58 minutes later. In any case, it was 4-0 Golden Eagles early.

Things nearly immediately fell apart for Marquette, as the Bearcats scored seven of the next eight goals to stake themselves to a 7-5 lead and they were able to push that to a 9-6 advantage on two goals from Adams with 14:40 left in the half. YEAH. 15 total goals scored in just over 15 minutes of action. There’s a lot going on here.

Extra woman goals from Soccodato and Menzuber cut into the lead, but it was 12-8 at halftime. After going up so quickly, that’s definitely not the situation that head coach Meredith Black and her charges wanted to find themselves at intermission.

The second half started off with two MU goals from Menzuber, but UC answered with three of their own. 15-10, 22:54 to go. And then Marquette found the gas pedal again. Menzuber scored with 22:22 to play to kick off a 6-0 run by the Golden Eagles that left them holding a 16-15 lead with 15:56 to go. After another goal from Adams — she would finish with four — Marquette answered with markers from Soccodato and Caroline Steller. 18-16, 11:35 to go.

Marquette needed to burn clock, but with the 90 second shot clock ticking at them constantly, they were going to have to play some defense, too. A yellow card on MU freshman Audrey Brett gave Kylie Nause a chance to score one of her five goals on the day, but Steller answered back less than a minute later.

That made it 19-17.... and I already warned you about what happens from here.

Lydia Foust missed a free position attempt wide. Monica Borzillo threw in an FPS for the Bearcats. Cincy goalie Kate Brocato put a stop on a Foust shot. Borzillo scored. 19-all, 1:38 to go. Bearcats win the draw, giving them the chance to burn out the clock.... and they did, with Adams’ goal coming with just 22 seconds left.

Emily Cooper won the ensuing draw for Marquette, giving the Golden Eagles a brief flicker of life..... and then UC picked up two yellow cards, sending them down two women for the rest of regulation. Nine seconds left. Free position attempt. Three seconds left. Shot by Foust.

Saved by Brocato.

Ground ball to the Bearcats.

Ballgame.

That stinks.

Menzuber had three assists to go with her six goals to put her atop the chart in all three offensive categories after one game. Foust added a pair of helpers to her three goals as well. Redshirt freshman Leigh Steiner made her Marquette debut in this game, and she chipped in a goal and a pair of assists to the proceedings. Three freshmen — Brett, Josie Kropp, and Faith Chmielewski — also made their MU debuts here.

Up Next: ah, crap, this won’t be fun. Marquette is off until next week Sunday when they’ll have their home opener. It will come against Meredith Black’s alma mater, Notre Dame. ND is #2 in the preseason IWLCA top 25 poll, and they started off the season with a 19-5 win over Vanderbilt on Saturday. They’ll host Central Michigan on Friday before making their way to Milwaukee.