Things unraveled late in the third quarter for the Golden Eagles, and the Wildcats take the final Big East tournament spot instead of MU.
Officially, Marquette women’s lacrosse lost a regular season game on Saturday afternoon at Valley Fields.
Unofficially, Marquette lost a play-in game for the Big East conference tournament. There was just one spot left in the four team field heading into Saturday’s action, and that spot was going to the winner of Saturday’s regular season finale between Marquette and Villanova. It wasn’t an extra game tacked on to the season as a tiebreaker, but it was, in effect, a play-in game. Winner gets conference champion Denver next week, loser starts taking stock and preparing for 2025.
And for a hot second there, it looked like it was going to be Marquette preparing for the Pioneers.
Meg Bireley extended her Marquette single season goals record for the first strike of the game, and goals from Leigh Steiner and Tess Osburn put the Golden Eagles up 3-0 before nine full minutes had been played in the seasonal bubble. Before the quarter was ended, Villanova had completely wiped out the lead, and midway through the second, the Wildcats had gotten themselves out in front, with an Ashlyn Hickey goal making it 6-4 VU with 8:25 left before the break.
That 6-1 Villanova run prompted a timeout from MU head coach Meredith Black, and whatever she dialed up in that huddle, it worked in a big way. Marquette got two goals just 29 seconds apart to tie the game, and with MU playing down one because of a penalty against CJ Meehan, Steiner scored a shorthanded goal to take the lead back. That shortie must hav fired up the squad, and after Nova broke the MU run, the Golden Eagles fired in three more strikes before the half ended. 10-7 Marquette at intermission, and they had just put up a 6-1 run to answer the same from the Wildcats.
This is where we have to point out that Steiner came up limping from her shorthanded goal, and spent the rest of the game on the sideline with a big wrap around her upper leg and what appeared to be an electro-stim pack tucked into it. She would not play again, and given that she’s the #2 scorer on the team by a wide margin and a big contributor on the draw squad, it seems clear that Marquette suffered without her.
It took a while for that to kick in as the scoring overall slowed way down after halftime. The two teams combined to score 11 goals in the second quarter, but with the clock passing the seven minute mark of the third period, each side had just added one to their total. Bireley scored a power play goal late in the period to put Marquette up 12-10, but one of two on the day from VU’s Sami Carey, coming with just 11 seconds left, made it a one goal game heading to the fourth quarter.
Carey’s goal was the first of a 5-0 run by the Wildcats and that’s where the game officially tilted over to the visitors. 15-12 with nine minutes left is definitely more than enough time for Marquette to turn the game back in their direction, but even with a Bireley goal 29 seconds later to make it 15-13, the Golden Eagles couldn’t muster up enough offense to make it work. VU added two more, and a late unsafe shooting motion penalty on Tess Osburn ended MU’s real chances of mounting a comeback.
17-14 is your final, and that’s it for the 2024 Marquette women’s lacrosse season.
Marquette was going to need to slow down Sydney Pappas and Sami Carey if they wanted to win, and the game plan just never came together there. Pappas finished with four goals and two assists, and while Carey scored just twice, she was a feeding machine, wrapping up the day with assists on eight of VU’s other 15 goals. Meg Bireley led Marquette with a seven point day as a late shorthanded highlight reel level behind the back goal gave her six plus an assist. CJ Meehan and Lauren Grady came off the bench to provide three points each for Marquette, with Meehan going for two goals and an assist, and Grady going the other direction on those.
As the home finale, this was also Senior Day for Marquette, so we have to send a big Anonymous Eagle THANK YOU to Audrey Brett, Faith Chmielewski, Samantha Galvin, Kaitlyn Huber, Josie Kropp, Jasmine Marval, Molly Powers, and Elle Wagner. Their final season in blue and gold may not have ended the way they wanted — especially Molly Powers, who went down in a heap very late and had to crutch her way through the postgame handshakes — but the fact of the matter is that these women were a part of the best season in program history in 2023, and they all helped, one way or another, set a new standard of success for Marquette women’s lacrosse. All of that work, in the years before that NCAA tournament appearance a year ago and all of it this season afterwards to keep building, must be recognized and appreciated, and thank you to each and every one of you for everything you’ve given to Marquette. We wish you nothing but the best in whatever comes next for you.