Comeback Denied: Marquette 16, UConn 15

The Golden Eagles staked themselves to an 8-2 lead early and then spent 37 minutes white knuckling through a 13-8 UConn run to the end of the game.

Here’s the important point of what happened on Saturday inside the Valley Fields seasonal bubble: Marquette women’s lacrosse staked themselves to a five goal lead at the end of the first quarter and went up by six goals with seven minutes left in the first half. Hanna Bodner’s 40th goal of the year came with 9:12 left in the first quarter, and that had Marquette up 8-2 on UConn until after the clock passed the midway point of the second quarter.

This is all good news. This means that Marquette never trailed on Saturday, as they started out the game on a 5-0 run, including a sick shorthanded goal by Tess Osburn to cap that run.

THE BAD NEWS is that Marquette struggled to contain the Huskies over the next 37 minutes, giving up 13 goals until the end of the game. UConn’s defense is pretty solid too, as we noted in the the preview for this game, and after putting up eight goals in the first 21 minutes of the game, the Huskies held the Golden Eagles to just eight goals for the entire rest of the game. Yep, that means that Marquette lost the final 37 minutes by a score of 13-8, which is, y’know, not so hot.

But the Golden Eagles bent and never broke. 9-7 Marquette after a woman-up goal from Rayea Davis, UConn’s leading scorer, with 2:43 to go before halftime, the third of three straight goals for the visitors? Marquette responded with two goals before the half ended, including one of a career high five from Sarah Beth Burns, this one with a woman advantage. Then, the third quarter opened with Meg Bireley’s third goal of the game and third since the start of the second quarter to get MU back up 12-7.

That third goal happened to be #200 for Bireley, which is of course a new Marquette record…. and makes her the fourth active Division 1 player with 200 career goals. Rarefied air.

It was 13-10 Marquette heading to the fourth quarter after Davis scored with seven seconds left, and then the Huskies tacked on the first two goals of the final period. That’s a 4-0 UConn run in less than five minutes of game time, and Eve McGrogan’s woman-up goal made it 13-12 Marquette.

Hanna Bodner got Marquette back up two, Megan O’Brien scored for the Huskies, 14-13, 11:50 left. Bodner again, this time with the woman advantage, 15-13, 10:21 to go….. and then the clock started playing a part. UConn won the draw after Bodner’s goal, but Brynna Nixon stopped Karsyn Burnash’s free position attempt with 10:03 to play……. and UConn didn’t shoot again until Emma Dacey’s goal with 5:01 to play. But that was 37 seconds after Meg Bireley had scored, so it was still a two goal game.

Marquette won the draw. Yellow card on UConn’s Meghan Lane. Tick, tick, tick. Huskies get the ball, kill off the final few seconds of the penalty, and O’Brien scored with 2:17 left. 16-15. Anything can happen. Lots of time.

Marquette won the draw, but they can’t run out the clock. Shot, save, GROUND BALL LAUREN GRADY on the long carom, under a minute to go, shot clock resets to 60 seconds, MU can just run it out.

Hanna Bodner led the way in goals with five, while Sarah Beth Burns and Meg Bireley both finished with four goals and an assist to tie Bodner in points in this one. Same goes for Tess Osburn, who got there on two goals and three assists, while Tessa Boehm had to settle for a game high four assists for her point total on the day.

How about some highlights, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and FloSports?

Up Next: Marquette has one last Big East game left on the slate. Two overall, but one last contest to get themselves into the conference tournament. Saturday’s win went a long way in that direction, but MU can do it officially next Saturday during their road trip to Georgetown. First draw on April 19th is set for 11am Central time, and FS1 will pick up the game for the television viewing audience. The Hoyas are 8-6 on the year and 3-1 in the Big East after besting Butler 17-6 on Saturday.