Win a regular season game against Denver in Colorado for the first time in program history, or watch the season end.
That’s the list of options for Marquette men’s lacrosse on Friday night.
A loss would drop the Golden Eagles to 2-3 in Big East play while raising Denver to 2-3. Obviously the Pioneers win that tiebreaker thanks to the head to head results. There’s a possibility that Providence loses to St. John’s in their finale, thus creating a three-way tie at 2-3 in the standings. I don’t know how
the tiebreakers would shake out there exactly, other than noting that all three squads would be 1-1 against each other, but the official team preview for this game says that MU’s season is over if they lose.
The biggest mental hurdle for head coach Jake Richard and his squad to overcome as they travel out west is the knowledge that they shouldn’t be in this position. Last weekend, they had a three goal lead on Villanova at three different points in the game. Two of those points were in the second half, and Marquette lost a three goal lead, saw VU take the lead, and then rally back to go up three with eight minutes left. That lead held until there was less than five minutes left, and Marquette was still leading on the scoreboard with 90 seconds left.
The game went to overtime, and it really should not have, and that means Villanova really should not have been able to take that game from Marquette. Had MU nailed down the edges there, they would be 3-1 in Big East play and safely in the conference tournament heading into the regular season finale. Instead, we’re here, hoping that Marquette can win back to back games against Denver for the first time in program history and thus punch their ticket to the postseason for the second straight season.
Big East Game #5: at Denver Pioneers (5-7, 1-3 Big East)
Date: Friday, April 24, 2026
Time: 7pm Central
Location: Peter Barton Stadium, Denver, Colorado
Streaming: ESPN+
Live Stats: Sidearm Stats
Bluesky Updates: @AnonymousEagle
Marquette is 3-13 all time against Denver. For the first time in program history, we get to say that the Golden Eagles are going into a game against the Pioneers after having won the regular season clash the year before. Marquette’s previous two victories against the Pios both came in the Big East tournament, downing them in the 2016 title game — that game is Marquette’s only win over Denver at Peter Barton Stadium in program history — and the 2017 semifinals.
Back in the Week 5 Inside Lacrosse media poll, Denver was ranked #13 in the country. I presume that’s back when they were 4-1 to start the season. Since the Pioneers have gone 1-6 since then — the lone W is 15-9 at home against St. John’s — no, they are most definitely not ranked any more. Some of the losing is not necessarily their fault, as they had a stretch of five ranked opponents in six contests, and the “easy” game was against #14 Georgetown.
Denver lost that one by a score of 17-5.
I think that kind of explains their entire deal right now.
Partially because they held Ohio State to just six goals and Duke to just eight goals, Lacrosse Reference really likes Denver’s defense. They are allowing goals on just 22.5% of possessions, which is the third best efficiency in the country. That’s great news for them, obviously, but their offense (#52) and specifically their turnover rate (#49) is not really helping the defense out all that much.
Marek Tzagournis is Denver’s top scorer with 33 points, and he’s splitting them pretty even between goals (17) and assists (16). Cody Malawsky is DU’s top goal scorer with 24 strikes this season. If Marquette can force the ball to Chase Bruno, that might be a pretty good plan. He’s third on the team in points with 20 (13 goals), but he’s second behind Malawsky with 60 shots. There’s a clear imbalance when a guy who can’t shoot feels it’s right to just keep on shooting his way out of the problem.
As you would expect with the great defense according to the analytics, Grayson Manning is having a great year in net for Denver. In just under 690 minutes this season, Manning is allowing just 8.74 goals per 60 minutes and stopping over 61% of shots on goal. That’s pretty good! Denver’s problem is that they’re getting outshot by nearly 10 shots per game on average, and that means they need Manning to play like this to have a chance.
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