In the preview for Saturday’s Marquette/Xavier women’s lacrosse game, I pointed out 1) that Marquette has been having some trouble maintaining offensive consistency as games have gotten into high leverage moments and 2) Xavier’s defense has been pretty stingy this season.
Both of those things seem to have played a part in Saturday’s 10-7 Marquette victory down in Cincinnati.
Marquette found themselves playing from behind in the early going, as it took a while for the offense to get in gear. Xavier
scored the first two goals of the game before MU pulled even and then took a 3-2 lead into the second quarter on this goal from Ella Mautz:
The two teams traded goals early-ish in the second quarter, and XU’s Haley Reeck got the Musketeers back even at four goals a side with 7:12 left before intermission. Marquette was able to be leading at the break because of goals by Isabelle Casucci and Hanna Bodner, but Reeck scored again with under a minute to go, so it was 6-5 Golden Eagles at the half.
Not the most explosive half, especially considering that Marquette was up 19-12 on shots at that point. You’d think that MU should be able to convert a few more shots, but XU goalie Jada Brandon had eight saves in the first half to keep her team right in the thick of things.
Marquette flipped that in the third quarter, holding Xavier to just two shots in the entire 15 minutes and scoring three times on their own end. Tess Osburn hit with 10:38 left:
Sarah Beth Burns found the net at the 6:52 mark on this free position shot:
And Osburn’s third of the game and 31st of the year might have just tipped the game over to MU for good with 4:08 to play:
With Xavier’s Lily Hayes scoring with under a minute left in the period, it certainly looked like XU could still steal this game with the score sitting at just 9-6 as the teams went to the fourth quarter. However, MU didn’t even give up a shot to the Musketeers until there was 7:46 to play and McKenna Farrell had already put MU up 10-6. Mikayla Yang stopped XU’s first two shots of the quarter after coming on in relief for Jillian Howell at halftime, and considering that MU was killing off a Riley Jenkins yellow card when she gave up a goal with less than three minutes left, it’s some pretty good work by the junior in an important spot for Marquette.
Tess Osburn’s hat trick pushed her to the team lead in points, as she had an assist as well. Ella Mautz was the only other multi-goal scorer in the game for Marquette. Mary Velner did some great work on defense with five ground balls and four caused turnovers.
The win moves Marquette to 1-1 in Big East play and keeps them in contention for the conference tournament, while Xavier drops to 0-2 in the league and 2-10 on the year.
Highlights, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and ESPN+:
Up Next: Can I interest you in a mid-week trip to the mountains? Marquette has to tangle with Denver coming up this Wednesday, with first draw set for 12:30pm Central time for some reason. ESPN+ will have the broadcast. The Pioneers are 9-2 this season and 2-0 in the Big East after beating Butler 14-2 in Indianapolis on Saturday.
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