To say Marquette women’s lacrosse opened Big East play with a bang would be an understatement.
For the second game in a row, senior attacker Meg Bireley made Golden Eagle history. After Marquette’s (6-3, 1-0) 16-5 win over Butler (0-6, 0-1), she now stands as the all-time goal scorer in program history with 181 goals — six above Grace Gabriel’s record that had stood for six years prior. Bireley only needed one goal to break the record today, but she scored six instead.
Twelve unanswered Marquette goals, senior Brynna Nixon’s five early saves and senior midfielder Hanna Bodner and junior attacker Isabelle Casucci’s hat tricks gave the Golden Eagles the dominant win in its fifth road game of the season.
Butler sticks with Marquette early
Marquette ran a quick-attacking offense right out the gate and it only took Bireley 46 seconds to snatch the all-time goal scoring lead. The senior atttacker grabbed a long pass, spun off her defender and took a low side shot to score.
NO. 1⃣
Meg is now the career goals leader in program history!!#WeAreMarquette pic.twitter.com/AAciIPkdrY
— Marquette Women’s Lacrosse (@MarquetteWLax) March 22, 2025
Assisted by junior attacker Tess Osburn, Casucci made it 2-0 in favor of the Golden Eagles three minutes after their first goal. Though, this is when Butler gave Marquette some trouble.
The Bulldogs scored twice with Emma Palmer and Elise Latham, making it a 3-2 game with a minute left in the first quarter. Butler slowed down a substantial amount and played their offense close to the cage, which disrupted the Golden Eagles’ defense and put it on its heels.
Bulldog goalie Alyssa Lentz made three saves 10 minutes into the game ,which kept Butler in the running.
Marquette adjusted and started pushing the Bulldog offense beyond the 12-meter fan. This limited Butler’s shot opportunities and when the Golden Eagles started to find open women because of double teams on offense, it started to check out.
Golden Eagles soar to a mega lead
After the first period, Marquette scored the next 12 goals.
Only five minutes into the second half, the Golden Eagles’ shot volume started showing itself. Marquette had 13 shots on goal compared to Butler’s five. This high amount of shots is something that the Golden Eagles have been offensively thriving from all season.
By the end of the game, Marquette outshot Butler on goal 26-10.
With eight minutes left in the first half, Brynna Nixon saved a free position shot from Butler’s Matye Riley for her fifth save of the day. Marquette ripped into a fast break, worked the ball around on the Bulldog’s side of the field and Bireley scored to make it 9-2.
When Casucci netted a hat trick on the day with a high pass-grab and score with six minutes left in the third period, it brought Marquette to its twelfth unanswered goal: the longest scoring run it has had all season.
Even when Butler scored three more times before the end of the matchup, the lopsided scoreboard had already decided the game.
Up next
Marquette will welcome Arizona State to Valley Fields March 25 at 12 p.m. CST. The game will be broadcasted on FloCollege Sports.
This article was written by Benjamin Hanson. He can be reached at benjamin.hanson@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @benhansonMU.