We’re into the home stretch of the 2026 Marquette men’s lacrosse season as the only thing left to do is knock out the five games of Big East play starting on Saturday. In fact, let’s get the details on that game out of the way.
Big East Game #1: at Providence Friars (4-6, 0-0 Big East)
Date: Saturday, March 28, 2026
Time: 11:30am Central
Location: Andy Glockner Memorial Bubble, Valley Fields, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Streaming: ESPN+, with Matt Menzel & Eric Simon calling the action
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Marquette is 7-6 all time against Providence. The Golden
Eagles held the early edge in the series, winning the first three games and five of the first six, including downing the Friars in the 2017 Big East championship game. It’s been mostly PC since then, with the Friars winning five of the last seven and each of the last three games. Last year’s game was a particular trouble spot, as Providence won 14-2 in Rhode Island.
Since this is the Big East opener for both Marquette and Providence, it seems like a pretty good time to take a swing around the league and see what everyone’s been up to with roughly 75% of everyone’s seasons already in the books. We’ll sort them in order of their RPI ranking through games played on March 25th, since it’s been about a week and a half since the NCAA debuted the numbers for this season. There’s an info dump with record, RPI, Inside Lacrosse media poll ranking where applicable, various stats leaders, and then the best win/worst loss according to the RPI. We’ll wrap up each section with whatever strikes my particular fancy about each team as I’m taking a look at how their spring has been going.
By the way: When it comes to the RPI rankings you see attached to anything here, please remember that there are only 77 Division 1 men’s lacrosse teams. “Oh, #39, that’s pretty good!” Yeah, sure, if this was basketball or volleyball, you’re right. Here, that’s the best team in the bottom half of the country.
Alrighty, we’ve got five non-MU teams to sift through here, let’s get going!
Georgetown Hoyas
Record: 3-4
RPI: #10
Inside Lacrosse Poll: #14
Points Leader: Rory Connor, 37
Goals Leader: Rory Connor, 29 (#1 in goals per game)
Assists Leader: Liam Connor, 25 (#1 in assists per game)
Goalie: Anderson Moore; 11.68 GAA, .515 SV%
Best Win: at #23 Penn, 12-9
Worst Loss: vs #12 Ohio State, 10-9
How are the Hoyas still ranked when they’re under .500 through seven games? Well, for starters, holding onto the #5 spot in the preseason poll is doing a lot of work there. After that, it’s the simple concept of Georgetown’s four losses are all to teams that 1) were ranked at the time of the game and 2) are all in the top 8 of the poll right now. That includes #1 Notre Dame and #2 Richmond, by the way. So, you can see how the voters might go week by week and say “okay, but that’s not a bad loss,” and just nudge the Hoyas down a little bit.
However, at some point, losing by 6 to Notre Dame and by 4 to Richmond and by 6 to Syracuse last Sunday has to start mattering. I would presume that the loser of Saturday’s Georgetown/Denver game is going to find themselves on the outside of the Inside Lacrosse rankings. That probably means that the Big East is going to be a one-bid conference for the NCAA tournament when we work our way around to that, although I suppose a surprise champion (not DU or GU, really) could throw a wrench into that.
There’s an interesting question to be asked about precisely where Georgetown would be this season if the Connor boys hadn’t transferred over from Colgate. Rory was an honorable mention All-American for the Raiders last season and averaged dang near a hat trick per game in 47 career contests for them. This will be his only season at Georgetown, while Liam had two seasons in Hamilton and had 115 points in just 33 games. Georgetown has just one other double digit goal scorer through seven games, and no one else on the roster even has nine assists.
Denver Pioneers
Record: 4-4
RPI: #18
Inside Lacrosse Poll: #13
Points Leader: Cody Malawsky & Marek Tzagournis, 22
Goals Leader: Cody Malawsky, 17
Assists Leader: Marek Tzagournis, 10
Goalie: Grayson Manning; 7.60 GAA, .640 SV% (#1 in both)
Best Win: vs #32 Air Force, 10-2
Worst Loss: at #12 Ohio State, 6-4
I don’t even know why Denver’s ranked at all. Like Georgetown, the Pioneers have only taken losses to ranked teams this season, but they don’t have the benefit of beating a ranked team to nudge them into the top 20 in the first place. I guess they wandered in by way of their 3-0 start, and then after a 6-4 loss to Ohio State, a 13-12 loss to Syracuse, and an 8-7 loss to Duke, everyone said “okay, but that means they’re good” and kept them in the rankings? They’re coming into Saturday’s game against the Hoyas on a three game losing streak — the three losses I just mentioned — so I can’t possibly see how they stay in the top 20 after a fourth straight loss, even if it is against a ranked Georgetown team. Or, heck, especially because if it’s against a Georgetown team that’s propped up by “good losses.”
As far as what to watch out for with the Pioneers, they’re going to be hard for anyone in the Big East to beat as long as Grayson Manning keeps being the best goalie in the league. He’s putting up those numbers after 180 straight minutes against ranked teams, and giving up just six to Ohio State and just eight to Duke is probably more impressive than the raw goals-per-60-minutes impact. Manning might need to keep that up, as it seems like DU doesn’t really have an elite scorer, although the Pios’ strength of schedule might be limiting their offensive output a little bit.
Marquette Golden Eagles
Record: 4-4
RPI: #33
Points Leader: Carsen Brandt, 29
Goals Leader: Carsen Brandt, 19
Assists Leader: Nolan Rappis, 11
Goalie: Lucas Lawas; 13.08 GAA, .444 SV%
Best Win: at #36 Bellarmine, 15-10
Worst Loss: vs #41 Michigan, 14-7
Yeah, I was kind of surprised to find Marquette as the third best team in the league and even in the top half of the country, to be honest. Between the way they lost to Utah and Michigan as well as the Wolverines going just 2-6 since that season opener, yeah, I figured it was kind of not super great for the Golden Eagles. Still, that UM loss is their worst of the year, and Marquette had some interesting fight against the two best teams (Notre Dame & Harvard) that they faced this season. If they can pay off this RPI ranking over the next five games, that could go a long way towards making this an obviously successful campaign for head coach Jake Richard.
Villanova Wildcats
Record: 3-5
RPI: #40
Points Leader: Luke Raymond, 21
Goals Leader: Luke Raymond, 18
Assists Leader: Nolan Sabel, 9
Goalie: Denis Fargione; 10.83 GAA, .453 SV%
Best Win: at #14 Penn State, 14-13, in overtime
Worst Loss: at #30 Lehigh, 14-7
Well, the first thing that we have to say about the Wildcats is that I’m not 100% certain that Denis Fargione is actually their active goalie. Anthony Wilson played the full 60 minutes in that loss to Lehigh for his only action of the season so far, and that was their most recent game, 10 days ago now. As far as I can tell, Fargione finished the Towson game one outing earlier. Wilson had the Wildcats underwater 5-1 just 11 minutes in, so that would seem to be a situation where you’d switch back to Fargione if he was available, right? There are a total of four goalies on the VU roster, so I guess we’ll find out where this goes eventually?
Other than that, things have kind of gone downhill since the opening 70 minutes of lacrosse this season. I say 70 because they started off with that win over then-#7 Penn State, and a win over a ranked team is something that no one else in the league can point at right now. However, the Wildcats have lost every other game to a ranked opponent this season, falling to Rutgers, Penn, and Towson. Losing to a Lehigh team that’s now 5-4 after those losses is no way to pay off on the promise of your season, especially since they got doubled up on the scoreboard.
Mixing all of that together: Starting off Big East play against St. John’s on Saturday is going to be an interesting litmus test for Villanova. Was the Lehigh thing a one-off? Is Fargione going to be back in the cage and does that reset the Wildcats a little bit? Or do their problems compound and they take a critical loss in the standings right out of the gate?
Providence Friars
Record: 4-6
RPI: #46
Points Leader: Rhett Chambers, 45 (#1 in points per game)
Goals Leader: Rhett Chambers & Richie Joseph, 20
Assists Leader: Rhett Chambers, 25
Goalie: Cam Sterritt; 10.95 GAA, .518 SV%
Best Win: at #45 Holy Cross, 15-10
Worst Loss: vs #50 Fairfield, 8-7
The obvious question: Hey, wait a minute, how does Providence have two guys averaging two goals a game and a guy averaging over four points a game and thus leading the Big East, but they’re under .500? Especially with a goaltender stopping more than half the shots on cage?
Easy! According to Lacrosse Reference, the Friars turn the ball over on over 36% of their possessions, making them one of the 15 worst teams in the country at keeping track of the ball. PC coughed it up more than 54% of the time in a 21-5 loss to Duke. Okay, so maybe they were going to lose that game anyway, right? How about exactly 50% of the time in that 8-7 loss to Fairfield? They were up 5-4 at the half, then turned it over 13 times after intermission, essentially never giving Chambers and Joseph a chance to piledrive the Stags out of the game. That was after 11 first half turnovers in the first place, so the whole thing was shaky anyway.
By the way: Fairfield is only credited with 11 caused turnovers in that game. Overall this season: 179 turnovers for the Friars, just 87 labeled as caused by their opponents. Yikes!
St. John’s Red Storm
Record: 2-7
RPI: #70
Points Leader: Noah Plenn, 27
Goals Leader: Noah Plenn, 14
Assists Leader: Noah Plenn, 13
Goalie: Matt Nelson; 12.81 GAA, .505 SV%
Best Win: at #67 Hofstra, 9-8
Worst Loss: vs #63 Bryant, 11-7
It feels important to note that Noah Plenn is the offensive leader for St. John’s even though he missed two games in the middle of their nine game slate to this point of the year. STJ lost both of those, 11-7 to Bryant and 19-4 to then-#19 Rutgers, both at home. He was back in the lineup for their last two games, handing out two goals and two assists in a 12-11 loss to Mercer and recording three assists in a 13-8 defeat against Brown. This is all notable because Plenn is #2 in the conference in goals per game and #3 in assists per game. Whatever else is going on with the Red Storm right now, Plenn has to be marked and marked well when the Johnnies have the ball.
Part of the reason that St. John’s is down here at the bottom of the page, coming into Big East play as one of the 10 worst RPI teams in the country, is because their strength of schedule stinks AND they’ve been losing games against said schedule. Five sub-40 losses, including two against sub-60 opponents is a great way to tank your own RPI, and throwing up a 19-4 loss against a good Rutgers team isn’t doing you any favors, either. Lacrosse Reference — doing a little bit more of an efficiency measurement than the RPI — has the Red Storm at #63 in the country instead of #70. I know, that’s not much of an improvement, but it does mean they’re maybe a little bit better than the RPI says.
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