Marquette women’s lacrosse (10-6, 4-3) was playing its game against Eastern Michigan University (8-8) Friday afternoon with something on its mind other than the matchup — their postseason chances.
The only way the Golden Eagles could clinch a spot in the Big East Tournament is a Georgetown win against UConn Saturday. Eastern Michigan had already clinched its conference tournament, so the Golden Eagles were alone in postseason uncertainty.
Despite Marquette’s lagged start, it overcame the deficit with junior attacker Tess Osburn’s career-high-tying six goals and by capitalizing on Eastern Michigan’s turnovers to win its regular season finale 18-14 in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
Eastern Michigan finds a rhythm early
Against a team that Marquette had beaten by a combined 22 goals in its previous two meetings, it found itself down 3-0 only six minutes into the first quarter to Eastern Michigan.
The Eagles were playing patient offense and the Golden Eagles couldn’t find a way to break up the Eastern Michigan-established pace.
Sophomore midfielder Sarah Beth Burns found herself in a free position attempt with 7:41 left in the first quarter, but shot high and missed because of a stick deflection. Burns found redemption only a minute later by breaking her defender and taking a callous high to low shot near the cage to make the game 3-1.
The simple sound of a Golden Eagle shot ripping the back of the net gave the team inspiration to start fighting back.
Marquette flips the script
Despite Eastern Michigan scoring the following goal, Marquette created six unanswered scores to bring the game to 7-4 with 12:49 left in the first half. Senior attacker Meg Bireley stamped her name on three of these.
A big catalyst of Marquette’s success was capitalizing on Eastern Michigan’s turnovers. At the end of the six-goal run, the Eagles had let up six of them.
Eastern Michigan’s Emerson Henry recorded a hat trick by breaking her team’s 10-minute scoring drought with 11:22 left in the half and Mackenzie Blackwell duplicated the effort four minutes later to make the score 7-6.
Though, this hardly discouraged Marquette because they continued to capitalize on turnovers and out-draw Eastern Michigan to go into the half leading 13-7.
Hanna behind the back assist to Tess who sidearms it in!
pic.twitter.com/5R7LTicrdQ
— Marquette Women’s Lacrosse (@MarquetteWLax) April 25, 2025
Last punches
After Schwab’s score, Marquette went silent for nine minutes and EMU cut its deficit to just three by getting more shot opportunities than the Golden Eagles.
Though, similar to the beginning of the game, Burns scored when it mattered most — and did it twice. This increased the gap once again and made it a 15-10 game with a minute left in the third quarter.
Eastern Michigan made Marquette fight for the game down the stretch when it scored two in a row to make it 17-13. But the Golden Eagles remained patient on offense to limit scoring and close out its regular season finale, earning its 10th win of the season. It marks only the third time in program history that the Golden Eagles have achieved this feat.
Up next
Marquette will continue its season in the Big East Tournament if Georgetown wins against UConn Saturday at 12 p.m. CST.
If Georgetown wins against UConn, the Golden Eagles will either face Denver (if Denver wins their final game) or Georgetown (if Denver loses their final game) May 1 at 12 p.m. CST in Villanova, Pennsylvania.
This article was written by Benjamin Hanson. He can be reached at benjamin.hanson@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @benhansonMU.