Despite an early lead on the road, the Marquette women’s lacrosse team was unable to pull of the victory over Niagara in Lewiston, New York, falling 12-9 to the Purple Eagles Sunday afternoon.
Just 90 seconds into the game senior midfielder Caroline Blandford put one in the back of the net to give Marquette the lead early. Not long after, first-year attack Meg Bireley gets a free position shot to put the Golden Eagles up 2-0.
Two minutes into the second period, Niagara took its first lead of the game when junior attack Lois Garlow scored her fifth goal of the season.
Niagara went on a 3-1 run going into the third period. First-year midfielder Lily Dietrich had a free position goal with 11 seconds remaining going into the half.
The third period was quiet for about seven minutes before junior attacker Mary Schumar scored for Marquette to cut the Purple Eagles lead to 7-5.
Niagara then had three goals in the span of 2:30 minutes which made it 10-5 with little time left in the third period.
Niagara starts off the last period with Garlow’s fourth goal of the game which puts them up 11-6 with a little under 12 minutes to play.
Marquette graduate student attacker Kyra Lamotte had her first goal on her first shot of the game which made it 11-7. Lamotte is coming off back-to-back five goal games.
First year attacker Elise Smigiel finds the net to close the lead back to three with five minutes remaining in the game.
The Golden Eagles scored one more goal towards the end of the game, but it would not be enough as Niagara pulls away with a 12-9 home victory.
Schumar led the way with three goals on the afternoon, along with Dietrich, Lamotte and Smigiel who each had one goal.
Marquette’s graduate student goalkeeper Amanda Rumsey finished the match with eight saves on 20 shots faced, while Niagara’s senior goalkeeper Michelle Messenger finished with 10 saves on 19 shots faced.
Marquette had 19 turnovers, while Niagara had 14 on the afternoon.
Marquette (3-4) returns to Valley Fields March 12 to take on Kent State at 3 p.m. CST.
This article was written by Kelly Reilly, she can be reached at kelly.reilly@marquette.edu or found on Twitter @kellyreillyyy.