In its opening-day exhibition game, Marquette women’s lacrosse used a senior attack Meg Bireley seven-goal game, scoring from young Golden Eagles and a full field zone press defense to take down UChicago 19-7.
“Everyone, whatever role they were playing, they did a nice job of buying into their role,” Marquette head coach Meredith Black said. “I don’t think freshmen played scared. I thought they played great.
“I thought for being a first game, I didn’t feel like they had jitters or nerves. I know it’s exhibition, but it felt like we were ready, confident and feeling good.”
In the first half, UChicago was within three goals of Marquette, but as the Golden Eagles started to pull away, Black said they started prioritizing getting everyone touches and time on the turf.
Offense goes to its tried and true
During the first thirty minutes, it was the junior Tess Osburn and Bireley show on offense —Marquette’s first seven goals were scored by either of the two attackers.
The offense funneled some shots early in the game to sophomore midfielder Lauren Grady and senior attacker Campbell Brown. With 8:46 left in the second quarter, Brown added to Marquette’s effort to make it 8-4 in favor of the Golden Eagles.
Though, after that, Marquette’s scoring went cold for eight minutes. A handful of bar ringers and close shot attempts left the squad scoreless and allowed UChicago to close the gap by two goals.
“It’s our first game back, so we’re still getting back into our form and cleaning up the little things,” senior defender Lily Dietrich said. “It’s not a skill thing whatsoever. I think it’s the little brain fart moments where we’re like, ‘Oh crap.’”
When Marquette started to pull away later in the game, young blue and gold players started to get opportunities on offense. In the second half, there were six unique scorers. Two first-years got their first Marquette career goals.
Full field zone press does its job
The entire game, Marquette used a full field zone press to suffocate UChicago’s attempts to get to the net. At times, the Maroons struggled to get past midfield.
“That’s something we really take a lot of pride in,” Dietrich said. “Once they bring it over, we get into our zone and our regular defensive sets, but something we take pride in is that we don’t let them bring it over easily.
“We want to get up on them and that’s the biggest time for us to get up. If one person is getting up on ball, it gives the rest of our defense time to get in and get set.”
Though, Marquette’s defense weakened when UChicago got deep into the Golden Eagles’ half of the field.
Every goalie gets time
In each of the four quarters, there was a different jersey number standing in net. Out of the group of four, sophomore Mikayla Yang was the one with the most saves (5) and senior Brynna Nixon was tied with Yang with the most goals allowed (3).
“I would say no surprises,” Black said. “I’d say they played as expected. Brynna and Mikayla are both contending for that starting spot, so I think they both did well. Though, I think that they both need to work on their clears.
“But Ava and Zoey did well too. So everyone played well.”
Up next
For their first official game of the season, the Golden Eagles will travel to Mount Pleasant, Michigan to take on the Central Michigan Chippewas Feb. 12 at 1 p.m. CST.
This article was written by Benjamin Hanson. He can be reached at benjamin.hanson@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @benhansonMU.