Marquette Women’s Lacrosse Preview: at Villanova

Well, things were going pretty decent for Marquette women’s lacrosse before last weekend. The Golden Eagles were 3-3 at the end of non-conference play and looked like they had figured out a thing or two after a pair of early close losses. No shame in dropping a third game to a ranked foe like Louisville in the non-con finale.

Then MU ended up on the short end of the stick in their Big East opener, which, y’know, things happen. UConn jumping out to a 7-1 lead and never really letting MU back into the game in the return bout two days later? That was less great. Marquette had already proven that they could learn and adapt against an opponent for a second time this season when they jumped up and down on Central Michigan’s head when the Chippewas came to Milwaukee. Yet that magic didn’t come through a second time for Marquette last weekend, and thus they are 0-2 in Big East play with eight games left to go.

It’s not the end of the world, but you would have like that to go better for Marquette. After all, Connecticut was picked to finish fourth in the Big East this year, one spot ahead of the Golden Eagles. If MU wants to finish in the top four, they have to swipe wins from the teams picked in front of them, and going into the year, UConn looked to be one of the most likely candidates for said swiping. But the Huskies are 2-0 against the Golden Eagles and so MU will have to look elsewhere for the wins they need.

The good news is that results so far this season make it look like Marquette can turn things around for themselves this coming weekend against the team picked third. Between the actual records involved, the baseline stats involved, and a glance at what LacrosseReference.com says about this weekend’s opponent, MU looks to be in a pretty good spot.

All MU has to do is remember the kind of good lacrosse they were playing going into the Connecticut games and the kind of good lacrosse they played in the first Connecticut game, and things should probably work themselves out.

Big East Game #3: at Villanova Wildcats (2-6, 0-2 Big East)

Date: Friday, March 26, 2021
Time: 11am Central
Location: Villanova Stadium, Villanova, Pennsylvania
Streaming: Villanova.com although I suspect it will be subscription only
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteWLax

Big East Game #4: at Villanova Wildcats (2-6, 0-2 Big East)

Date: Sunday, March 28, 2021
Time: 11am Central
Location: Villanova Stadium, Villanova, Pennsylvania
Streaming: Villanova.com although I suspect it will be subscription only
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteWLax

Marquette is 3-4 all time against Villanova. The Wildcats took the first three meetings, while the Golden Eagles won the next three in a row. Villanova won the most recent meeting to snap MU’s win streak, 15-13, at Valley Fields back in March 2019.

Villanova suffered the same fate as Marquette in the opening weekend of Big East play: A pair of losses. However, it wasn’t quite the exact same fate, as Georgetown handled the Wildcats pretty easily. In Game #1, the Hoyas bridged halftime with a 7-0 run to go from tied at five each to winning 12-5 on their way to a 19-11 victory. Game #2 was more like Marquette’s Game #2 against Connecticut as Georgetown got out to leads of 4-0, 6-1, and 8-2 to run away and hide early for a 18-8 win.

Marquette’s results were kind of a bummer, Villanova’s were more along the lines of what had happened to the Wildcats all year. After starting the year with a 19-18 overtime win against Wagner, Villanova was outscored 52-15 in their next three games, all losses. They got back into the win column with an 11-10 victory at home against La Salle, but wrapped up non-conference action with a 12-9 loss at Hofstra.

Villanova has a trio of women who are good for at least two points a game this season. Libby McKenna leads the team with 19 goals along with three assists for 22 points in their eight games. Katie Comerford is a distributor more than a scorer with a team high 12 assists, but she has nine goals, too. Brittany Bruno has 12 points (9G, 3A) in six games to hit that two-per number on the button. She missed the first two games of the season, so we can expect the senior from New Jersey to be in the lineup this weekend.

Alexa Moro has started every game in goal for Villanova this season, but she has only finished two of them. Mary Alice Collins has played in six games this year for a total of 140 minutes. Collins, a freshman from North Carolina, has played at least 20 minutes in three of her appearances, including a whopping 54 minutes in VU’s 17-2 loss to Temple where Moro let in five goals in the first six minutes. Neither woman has particularly impressive stats to argue one way or the other on either one starting, so I presume that head coach Julie Young will stick with Moro as her starter. Young isn’t afraid of giving her the hook, though, so we’ll see if Marquette’s offense can frustrate the Wildcats defense enough to force the change.