The Golden Eagles visit the Titans in an effort to shake a three game losing streak.
I’m not trying to say anything mean about anyone here, but we’re going to learn an awful lot about Marquette women’s lacrosse on Wednesday afternoon.
The Golden Eagles have had late game problems in three of their four games this season. Once it didn’t matter because they were up 10 to start the fourth quarter, but that doesn’t change the fact that the Bearcats outscored them 6-2 in the final 15 minutes. In MU’s other two competitive games — the Northwestern game is the one of the four that doesn’t apply here because, duh — the Golden Eagles let a close contest fall out of their hands.
Marquette was up 7-5 with four minutes left in the third quarter against Louisville, and lost 14-9 because they gave up seven unanswered goals to end the frame and start the fourth quarter. Last time out, the game against Jacksonville was tied at 13 each with six minutes to play before Marquette gave up four unanswered goals in an 18-14 loss.
What’s the solution? No idea! That’s up to head coach Meredith Black and her staff to figure out. Do they need to do a little bit more substituting to keep legs fresh late? Is Marquette getting figured out as games go along and teams start finding seams against them that MU can’t do the same to on the other end? Something else entirely? Just a by-product of a few new faces fitting into a few new roles as opposed to last year’s veteran crew who knew what to expect when games were on the line? Is the mere experience of going through this together going to make the Golden Eagles a better lacrosse team?
Regardless of what the answer is, signs point to Marquette not having to deal with this problem on Wednesday in Michigan. Between MU knowing that they can’t let another game slip away from them, the series history against Detroit Mercy overall, how last year’s game against the Titans went, and how UDM’s season has gone to this point, it certainly looks like the Golden Eagles should be able to get this win without large amounts of difficulties, especially late.
But that’s why they play the games, right?
Game #5: at Detroit Mercy Titans (0-3)
Date: Wednesday, February 28, 2024
Time: Noon Central
Location: Titan Field, Detroit, Michigan
Streaming: ESPN+
Live Stats: Sidearm Stats
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteWLax
Marquette is a perfect 8-0 all time against Detroit Mercy. The two teams played in each of MU’s first four seasons as a program, took a two year break, played twice more, got COVID protocol’d for a year, and have resumed the series in the past two seasons. The games have gotten very lopsided in the past two, with MU setting a record for goals in a game with 26 last season.
Detroit Mercy’s season has gotten progressively worse as they’ve started the year with three straight road games. Their opener was a 12-11 loss at New Hampshire where they couldn’t get a goal to tie the game in the final 2:30 even though they outscored UNH 5-2 in the fourth quarter. One week later, they dropped both sides of a weekend visit to Pittsburgh, falling by six goals to Duquesne, 13-7, and by 11 goals to Pitt, 17-6. Duquesne ran away with that one in the third and fourth quarters with a stretch of six unanswered goals with the final three coming on penalties by the Titans. Pitt’s demolition of UDM was more straight forward as the Panthers scored the first three goals and 14 of the first 15, all before halftime.
I suppose that none of this can be terribly surprising. Detroit Mercy was picked to finish last in the MAC this season after going 2-6 a year ago in league action. UDM didn’t even put a press release about the league’s preseason poll of the coaches on their own website, and given that apparently the MAC doesn’t do a preseason all-conference team, I guess I don’t blame them for not waving a sign that says “our own league thinks we’re bad.” It was a close vote though, as UDM snagged 12 points against 13 each for Youngstown State and Akron in a tie for fifth place ahead of them.
Cat Kopchia is the early scoring leader for the Titans. She had eight goals through three games, tallying at least two strikes in each of UDM’s games so far this year. Five different women are in a tie for the lead in assists with two each, and we’ll give the scouting report advantage here to Alyssa Jarvis, as the sophomore has four goals to have the highest point total amongst the assist leaders.
Meredith Leavell has played all but the final 10 minutes of the Duquesne game in net for the Titans so far this season. As you could expect, things are not going great for her statistically speaking. She’s letting in 14.46 goals per 60 minutes and stopping less than 41% of shots on frame. The junior from Florida started 13 times a year ago and finished the year ninth in the country in saves per game at 10.36. That’s one of those “good news/bad news” situations, as it means she was making a lot of saves…… and seeing a lot of shots in order to make those saves.