Marquette Downs Cincinnati To Open The 2022 Season

We saw something that we had never seen before on Saturday, and I didn’t even realize that was the case until after the fact.

Behind three goals and three assists from Shea Garcia, Marquette women’s lacrosse beat Cincinnati, 16-13, and in the process picked up the program’s first ever win in a season opener. MU advances to 1-0 for the first time ever.

I’m not above fact checking this one in the name of laying a program first out for you.

• 2013: 17-7 loss at Winthrop
• 2014: 16-2 loss at Johns Hopkins
• 2015: 8-7 double overtime loss vs #16 Johns Hopkins
• 2016: 14-6 loss at #15 Louisville
• 2017: 13-12 loss vs #18 Louisville
• 2018: 14-7 loss at #22 Johns Hopkins
• 2019: 19-4 loss vs #20 Notre Dame
• 2020: 18-3 loss at #7 Notre Dame
• 2021: 20-19 loss at Cincinnati

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think Marquette should start their season with a ranked opponent any more.

At the first ever first quarter break in Marquette lacrosse history, as the NCAA switched the sport to quarters for this season, the Golden Eagles held a 4-3 advantage on the Bearcats although Cincy had just tacked on a goal with a woman advantage with 37 seconds left in the period. The first ever second quarter in Marquette lacrosse history is where the home team made their move. Emma Soccodato scored just 37 seconds into the frame to start off a 4-1 run for the Golden Eagles, and Garcia’s second goal in less than a minute doubled up the Bearcats 8-4.

A flurry of Cincinnati penalties towards the end of the quarter altered the game, although not in the way that Marquette would have wonted. Hannah Greving made it 9-5 Marquette with 1:47 to go, but the Bearcats scored the last goal of the quarter again. This time it was Morgan Bates scoring while down a woman with 54 seconds left before intermission to make it 9-6 at the break.

The third quarter is where grad transfer Kyra LaMotte made her first impact on the Marquette season. She scored MU’s first two goals of the second half, one at the 12:12 mark and again with 7:46 to go. Tack on a Leigh Steiner goal less than 30 seconds after LaMotte’s second, and it was 12-6 Golden Eagles with about a quarter and a half to go.

A couple of Marquette penalties in the fourth quarter cracked the door open for Cincinnati, ever so slightly. Kylie Nause and Ava Goeller scored for the Bearcats on either side of a Lydia Foust goal for MU to make it a 14-10 ballgame with 8:12 to go, but Marquette was able to slam the door closed. Mary Schumar scored a power play goal of her own for MU, and Garcia wrapped up her hat trick with 6:46 to play to put the Golden Eagles up 16-10 and effectively end the game.

Sure, head coach Meredith Black is going to have a lot to say about Marquette giving up three goals all to Goeller in a 44 second span, but it was still 16-13 with 1:53 to go after those. MU won the ensuing draw control, a very important one given how the last two had gone, and MU was able to burn out the clock from there even while the Bearcats committed four fouls.

Garcia’s six points were the highlight of the day, but two more MU players added hat tricks as well. Steiner had one and Soccodato had the other, and Steiner added an assist to match Schumar for the second best Marquette point total of the afternoon. Audrey Brett was tops in ground balls with three, while Garcia tied with freshman defender Jasmine Murray for the team lead in caused turnovers with two each. Draw controls were a bit of a team effort thing in this one, as Steiner’s six were the most out of the 22 gathered up by the entire roster. Amanda Rumsey made her Marquette debut in net, and the grad transfer from Butler won the goaltending battle on the day. She made 14 saves, including five in the final frame to hold the Bearcats off, and finished with a save percentage north of 50% on the day. Can’t ask for much more than that from your netminder.

How about some highlights, courtesy of GoMarquette.com?

Up Next: It’s time for Marquette to play a ranked team! On Monday evening, they’ll be down in the north Chicago suburbs for a contest against #4 Northwestern. They’ll probably be in a bad mood as they opened their season with an 18-9 loss on the road against #1 Boston College. I’m not sure exactly when the new Inside Lacrosse poll is going to update, so there’s definitely a chance that the Wildcats aren’t actually #4 in the country when the game starts, but I’m pretty sure they’ll stay in the rankings even after getting doubled up by the Eagles. The game is set to start at 6pm Central, but as it currently stands, there are no streaming options available for this game which seems inexplicable for a Big Ten athletic department and a building that was opened just four years ago.