It seems the Hoyas are better than their overall record, and they showed that on Saturday.
In the preview for Saturday’s Marquette women’s lacrosse game against Georgetown, I wondered if the Hoyas were better than the 5-9 record that they carried into the game. They were not that far off from some pretty notable wins and they had definitely scheduled up in the non-conference portion of the schedule.
Well, after 60 minutes of lacrosse, at the very least, we can say that Georgetown’s 5-9 record coming in was better than Marquette’s 5-9 record coming in, as the Hoyas picked up an 18-11 victory over the Golden Eagles. That moves GU to 4-1 in Big East action while dropping Marquette to 1-3 and thus puts MU’s postseason hopes in jeopardy.
It clearly seemed like Marquette had their work cut out for them, even after scoring first and scoring quickly at that. Georgetown put in the next three, and only a yellow card on the Hoyas let MU make it a 3-2 game after 15 minutes.
The game turned hard in the middle-ish section of the second quarter. GU’s Tatum Geist scored the first goal of the second period, but Marquette answered 28 seconds later
And Georgetown answered back 24 seconds later.
And Marquette answered back 34 seconds later.
And Georgetown answered back six seconds later….. and again nine seconds after that. 7-4 Hoyas there, and it was that last one that was particularly backbreaking and not just because of the speed. I’m not 100% sure what the call was, but the referee called some sort of violation on the draw….. then signaled Georgetown ball…… and the Hoyas ran to the net and scored while Marquette seemed unaware that play was restarting. More troubling, this was in the immediate wake of Georgetown winning a draw cleanly and scoring in six seconds. Bad times.
But it was still clearly a winnable game for Marquette. MU scored the last goal of the first half with a minute to go before the break to make it 9-6, and Osburn scored the first goal after intermission to make it 9-7. The two sides traded goals, and so it was 10-8 Georgetown with 11:52 left in the third quarter. Still clearly anyone’s ballgame.
And then Marquette gave up a 6-1 run powered by three power play goals that lasted until there were less than nine minutes to go in regulation. 16-9 Georgetown, and that was pretty much that. The 6-1 run is what did the damage, but I can’t help but wonder what would have happened if Marquette had managed to hold off the Hoyas instead of giving up those quick fire response goals in the second quarter.
Meg Bireley put up a hat trick to lead Marquette in scoring, and her assist on the day gave her enough points to match Leigh Steiner’s two and two for the top mark in that department. Brynna Nixon was lifted after making five saves in the first 41 minutes while letting in 14 goals. Mikayla Yang stopped four while letting in the final four GU goals in relief, and after she started against UConn a couple of games ago, I wonder who we’ll see in net next time.
Up Next: Marquette isn’t 100% eliminated from Big East tournament contention, but they’re now at the point where they can’t lose again. They’ll be back out on the road next Saturday when they head to Ohio to face Xavier. The Musketeers are 3-10 on the year and 0-3 in Big East action after losing 18-8 to Villanova on Saturday. They’ll have a mid-week road game at Eastern Michigan on Wednesday before Marquette comes to town.