It was a back-and-forth contest until midway through the second quarter, and then it was all Golden Eagles all the time.
For a little bit over a quarter’s worth of action at a cold and blustery Titan Field in Detroit, we had a back-and-forth women’s lacrosse game between Marquette and Detroit Mercy. Shots favored Marquette 11-9 at the end of the first quarter, but with goalie Brynna Nixon making just one save in the first 15 minutes, Detroit Mercy had the advantage on the scoreboard, 4-3, as we headed to the second quarter.
The Titans scored first in the second quarter to make it a 5-1 run for the home team, but Marquette answered back with two of their own, including a shorthanded goal by Leigh Steiner with about 20 seconds left on a Meg Bireley penalty. 5-5, all even, with 8:43 left in the second.
That’s where head coach Meredith Black swapped out Nixon for backup Ava Sprinkel. Whether that was “we need to be doing better and this is a message to all of you to step up your game because we need to do that for Ava” or if that was “Brynna doesn’t have it today” because Nixon had made just two saves on seven shots on goal at that point, I can’t tell you.
What I can tell you is that all doubt about who was going to win this game was about to be removed.
Not immediately, though. Detroit Mercy scored next, putting their first shot after MU’s goalie switch past Sprinkel for a 6-5 advantage. That came with 5:47 left before halftime….. and UDM would not score again until there was nearly three minutes left in the game.
That’s thirteen unanswered goals for Marquette from Steiner’s goal to tie the game at six to freshman Sarah Beth Burns scoring her first collegiate goal with 8:12 left in the fourth quarter. Marquette outscored Detroit Mercy 7-0 in the third quarter and it was 3-0 in the fourth, 10-0 in the second half, before the Titans snapped the run. Going back to when MU scored two straight right before Nixon was lifted, that’s a 15-1 run by the Golden Eagles.
There were signs that it was coming. Up until Alyssa Jarvis’ goal for Detroit Mercy right before the run started, Marquette was outshooting UDM 8-3 in the second quarter. That’s a pretty heavy tilt from the 11-9 shot situation in the first quarter, and as the run got started in the second, it was 6-1 favoring the Golden Eagles. That turned into a 20-4 shot advantage from the start of the run through the entirety of the third quarter, and then eventually to 24-7 before UDM snapped the run. Whatever you want to say about the coaching decision to switch from Nixon to Sprinkel, the fact of the matter is that the women on the field made Sprinkel’s life incredibly easy by only letting seven shots go her way during that run.
A big reason why MU was able to do that? Josie Kropp was ruining lives on draws all day long. Kropp was credited with all 24 draw controls on the day for Marquette while the Titans as a team only picked up four and no one on their roster had more than one. That number is so fantastical, I’m curious if UDM’s game ops crew was actually scoring the draw controls correctly. MU definitely won them, but the control goes to whoever picks the ball up, and Kropp going a perfect 24-for-24 on every single MU control almost seems mathematically impossible, right?
Leigh Steiner and Meg Bireley tied for high goals honors on the day with four each, but Bireley gets the points award for the afternoon since she added two assists as well. Isabelle Casucci posted a hat trick, getting her second four-point game of the still very young season.
How about some highlights, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and ESPN+?
Up Next: Marquette has one more road game to go before they come back to Valley Fields for one. On Sunday, they’ll take their 2-3 record to upstate New York for a game against Niagara, with first draw set for 11am Central. The Purple Eagles are 3-1 on the year after beating Le Moyne 20-8 on Wednesday afternoon.