What do we know about the 2026 season already after two games for Marquette women’s lacrosse?
We know that Marquette’s offense is going to mostly run through Tess Osburn and Hanna Bodner. That pairing is 1-2
in goals right now, and they’re 1-2 in shots right now, although it’s Bodner with the 11-9 edge at the moment. None of that is really a surprise, those were Marquette’s top two returning scorers.
We know that Dani Serrano is going to make a big impact on the offense. The freshman from Maryland is tied with Osburn for the team lead in assists with four and she’s second to Osburn in points, 12-8.
We know that head coach Meredith Black is already trusting freshmen Haley Brown and Gabby Windesheim. Both women have started in Marquette’s first two games. Brown didn’t get on the stat sheet other than her start in the opener, but had two ground balls and a caused turnover against Cincinnati. Windesheim has six draw controls through two games, although five of them came against Eastern Michigan.
For the moment it seems that Marquette is winning draw controls by committee. Hanna Bodner leads the Golden Eagles right now with nine, but Sarah Beth Burns is at seven and both Windesheim and Riley Jenkins are at six. There may need to be some fine tuning as to how the Golden Eagles go about winning draws as they handled EMU pretty easily but lost that category to Cincinnati, 17-12.
It’s safe to say that Black isn’t convinced that she has a #1 goalie right now. Mikayla Yang has started both of Marquette’s games, but freshman Jillian Howell came on in relief at halftime of both games. Howell seems to have the more impressive stats so far. She’s allowed eight goals and made 11 saves on 27 shots faced in her 60 minutes of work, while Yang is at 11 allowed and three stopped on just 18 shots faced. The catch of course is that Howell entered the games in question holding leads of 17-7 and 9-4, and it’s worth noting that half of Howell’s goals allowed came in the final five minutes of the Cincinnati game after MU was up 16-6 when UC started peppering her. I don’t know what kind of deal Black has worked out with her two net minders, but I think it’s at least worth exploring the idea of giving Howell the opportunity to play with 0-0 on the scoreboard this weekend before the Golden Eagles visit #2 Northwestern next week.
Game #3: vs Central Michigan Chippewas (0-1)
Date: Friday, February 13, 2026
Time: 5pm Central
Location: Andy Glockner Memorial Bubble, Valley Fields, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Streaming: ESPN+
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Bluesky Updates: @AnonymousEagle
Marquette is 9-2 all time against Central Michigan. Last year’s 17-5 victory in Mount Pleasant gave the Golden Eagles their fifth straight victory in the series and their third straight game with exactly 17 goals against the Chippewas.
We are left with a dilemma when it comes to previewing Central Michigan based on their season opener. Is there anything useful to take away from the Chippewas’ 25-0 loss to #25 Notre Dame last weekend? Can we even take “Anna Farrar led the team with four of their seven total shots in the game” as useful information about CMU this season? Farrar played in 10 of their 15 games last season and had four goals and two assists and she’s Central Michigan’s fourth best returning point scorer from last season. I don’t think there’s anything interesting to take away from “Leila Kahler gave up 19 goals in the first three quarters of the game” when she had played just 200 minutes in three seasons before taking the field as the starting goalie this past weekend. The biggest thing to learn there is that head coach Emelia Ward — former Marquette assistant! — didn’t want to send her only other goalie out there for that much of the game because Abby Schroer is a freshman, and she gave up six more goals while playing the fourth quarter.
Here’s what we can say for sure about Central Michigan: They were picked to finish fifth in the MAC this season, landing with 28 points in the preseason poll. That’s three spots and nine points behind Eastern Michigan, who did earn one first place vote from one of the league’s coaches. That’s the same Eastern Michigan team that Marquette already beat 20-9 in the season opener. I don’t know if “prove the MAC poll correct” should be an item on head coach Meredith Black’s actual scouting report for her team, but there’s worse ways to go about life.
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