How much do you want to care about Marquette’s defense giving up 12 goals to Mercer?
It was 15-6 at halftime, 17-11 going into the fourth quarter. Really, it was just that 15 minutes that was a problem, giving up five goals on 14 shots and seven on frame. All three of those numbers were game highs for the Bears/for Marquette’s defense in terms of quarter by quarter numbers, which isn’t what you want to see, of course.
It did, however, come on the heels of Marquette throwing a 7-0 run at Mercer in the final
10 minutes of the second and then tacking on the first goal of the third quarter, too. Marquette also tightened back up in the fourth quarter, allowing just one goal even though the Bears tallied up 13 shots. Only five of those were on target, which is a big difference from the 14 and 7 from the previous quarter.
I’d imagine that head coach Jake Richard is saying “hey, we can’t go to sleep for 15 minutes like that again this year” in meetings and practices since Saturday. That’s particularly important here since their opponent will be looking at this game as perhaps their last step towards a spot in the national top 20 rankings. I’d imagine that Richard is emphasizing the point that Marquette will have nine days off before their next game, so there’s no reason not to throw their best effort of the season at the visiting team on Wednesday afternoon. Heck, if he wanted to go so far as to say “Big East play begins now!” to his team, I’d find it hard to disagree with him. Villanova was earning top 20 votes last week, what’s really the difference between Wednesday’s opponent and the Wildcats at that point? The effort and determination to make play after play to beat Utah is going to be what it’s going to take to record multiple Big East wins this season.
By the way? This is Game #7 of 13 in 2026 for Marquette. We’re already over the halfway point. Probably wouldn’t hurt to make that point, too.
Game #7: vs RV Utah Utes (4-2)
Date: Wednesday, March 11, 2026
Time: 12pm Central
Location: Andy Glockner Memorial Bubble, Valley Fields, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Streaming: ESPN+ with Matt Yeazel and Eric Simon calling the action
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Bluesky Updates: @AnonymousEagle
Marquette is 1-3 all time against Utah. The two teams have met in each of the past four seasons with the Utes winning the first three times and the Golden Eagles winning last year in overtime in Salt Lake City.
Utah was earning votes in the preseason Inside Lacrosse top 20 poll, but their movement towards the actual rankings got short circuited by their second and third game of the season. Game #2 was a 14-7 loss to then-#11 Duke, which is obviously not so bad at face value at trying to get into the top 20. However, it was 7-1 Blue Devils midway through the second quarter, so a lot of the rest of the game was ultimately just Duke holding Utah at arm’s length.
That wasn’t their real problem relative to the rankings, losing 8-7 at home to to an unranked Denver team in Game #3 was. Losing to the Pioneers on Valentine’s Day wasn’t really the problem, especially not as the Pios have climbed up to #13 in the country themselves this week. The problem was Utah getting put in a sleeper hold for the final 23 minutes of the game. Karson Sparks put the Utes up 7-5 with 8:34 to play in the third quarter, and Utah just never scored again. They had chances, outshooting Denver 13-6 in the fourth quarter, but Denver’s Grayson Manning made nine saves in the period, including one as time expired to preserve DU’s victory.
Since then, Utah has been unloading on people. They beat Merrimack on the road by nine, they beat Iona by 28 — no, really, 32-4, it was 14-0 in the first — and they’re coming off a seven goal win over Dartmouth this past weekend. That game was back and forth and just 7-6 Utah until late in the second quarter. The Utes uncorked six straight goals, three on either side of halftime, to go up seven and didn’t allow the Mean Green to score back-to-back goals again until the final eight minutes.
Thankfully, we don’t have to put an asterisk on the scoring totals for Ryan Stines here. He leads Utah in points with 31 this season on 19 goals and 12 assists. He had just two goals against Iona, so his numbers are not weirdly inflated by that absurdly lopsided contest. We can’t say the same thing for Luke McNamara, who is second on the team in points and tops in goals. Yes, he has 25 goals on 52 shots this season, that’s a great return on investment there. However, 10 of those goals came on 15 shots against the Gaels. Even if we make an adjustment of “y’know, five goals is still a tremendous game,” McNamara is still leading the Utes in goals, so he’s a guy that has to be watched. Zachary White has 10 assists, just one behind Stines, so he’s a talented offensive player that has to be minded as well.
Colin Lenskold is Utah’s primary goalkeeper this season, playing all but about 58 minutes, with most of his missing time coming as the second half against Iona. He’s stopping nearly 49% of shots on goal this season, and that’s a big reason why he only lets in 9.27 goals per 60 minutes on the year. Even against Duke, which got a little lopsided on Utah, Lenskold still stopped 46% of shots on goal, which isn’t really that far off his season average.
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