The Golden Eagles wrap up the regular season by hosting a de facto play-in game to the Big East tournament.
There’s one match day left for Big East women’s lacrosse. Four teams will qualify for the conference tournament, and with five losses already, both Butler and Xavier have been eliminated from contention.
That leaves five teams for the four spots…… and three of the teams have already clinched their spot although seeding hasn’t been decided yet. Denver has locked up at least a share of the Big East title and the #1 seed at 5-0 and just needs to beat 0-5 Xavier to lock up the outright title. UConn and Georgetown are both 4-1 with only a loss to Denver on their records, and their game on Saturday against each other will decide who is the #2 seed and who is the #3. The winner will have a shot at a share of the title if Xavier shocks the world and beats the Pioneers, but they can’t get to the top seed by way of the loss to Denver.
That’s the top three spots figured out one way or another already. Villanova and Marquette are both 2-3 in the standings, two games behind UConn and Georgetown, and thus unable to catch or pass those two with a win on Saturday. One team will be 3-3 when the game is over and the #4 seed in the tournament with Denver waiting in the semifinals. The other team will be 2-4 and done for the 2024 season.
It is, quite literally, a play-in game to the conference tournament in Cincinnati next weekend. Win, and you’re in. Lose, and you’re out and the season is over.
No pressure! At least it’s a home game?
Oh, and because it is the regular season finale and it is a home game, it is also Senior Day in the Valley. Audrey Brett, Faith Chmielewski, Samantha Galvin, Kaitlyn Huber, Josie Kropp, Jasmine Marval, Molly Powers, and Elle Wagner will be honored in a pregame ceremony, as will senior managers Sofia Heaps and Kiley Root.
Can we embed the streaming video right in here?
If that doesn’t work for some reason, use the link below.
Big East Game #6: vs Villanova Wildcats (6-8, 2-3 Big East)
Date: Saturday, April 27, 2024
Time: Noon Central
Location: Andy Glockner Memorial Bubble, Valley Fields, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Streaming: Marquette Athletics on YouTube, with Scott Sudikoff and Eric Simon calling the action
Live Stats: Sidearm Stats
Bluesky Updates: @AnonymousEagle
Marquette is 6-5 all time against Villanova. This series has been a series of runs: Villanova won the first three, Marquette won the next three, the Wildcats got the next two, and the Golden Eagles come in on a three game winning streak and took the series lead on a 12-8 win in Pennsylvania last season.
We probably shouldn’t be all that surprised in the relative similarities in the seasons of both Marquette and Villanova, seeing as they come into the regular season finale with the same wins and losses in Big East play. It’s bigger than just that, though. Both teams have an 0-3 record against top 20 RPI teams, including their loss to Denver in conference play. Both teams have lost every game in the top 60 of the RPI that they’ve played this season, with Villanova going 0-4 between 21 and 60 and Marquette going 0-7. The Wildcats come off a little bit worse than MU because they have a 14-12 loss to #88 Columbia, while the Golden Eagles are a perfect 6-0 against teams north of 61 in the RPI. Villanova took most of their losses early in the season, starting out the year 2-5 in their first seven games through March 6th.
The two teams are something of an inverse image of each other, at least in terms of what Lacrosse Reference says about them. Villanova struggles on the offensive end, perhaps because they’re one of the worst teams in the country at turning the ball over. They’re #89 in the country on that end, but #62 in defensive efficiency. Marquette’s offense is their strength, ranking #57 in the country, and they’d be better than that if they didn’t rank #67 in turnover rate. MU’s defense hasn’t been able to hold up their end of the deal to let the offense go to work, ranking #104 in the country in efficiency. In short, it will be strength vs strength and weakness vs weakness on each end of the field in this game, so it’s hard to tell who comes out holding an edge.
Sydney Pappas and Sami Carey present two unique threats for the Marquette defense. Pappas is one of the best goal scorers in the league, trailing only MU’s Meg Bireley in goals per game, as they’re the only two women averaging more than three goals per contest this season. She’s also the only player on the squad with more than 20 goals this season, and so she’s the only threat on paper to score more than one goal in any given game. However, Carey is #2 on the goals list with 19, and she sits in second in points thanks to her assists. She’s got 20 helpers to this point of the year, and that has her ranked #4 in the Big East in assists per game. Carey accounts for nearly 30% of VU’s assists on the year, so if Marquette can force the ball away from her, that can turn the Wildcats into a one on one attacking team.
It looks like Villanova has turned to Makenzie Fisher in net. Cate Gallagher left VU’s game against UConn on April 3rd after allowing seven goals in less than 15 minutes, and even though she had been the primary goalie for most of the season, Gallagher hasn’t played since. Fisher came on in relief in that one, then started the Xavier game and left for Kate Montalto’s first appearance of the year when VU was up 17-4 in the fourth quarter, and then played the full 60 minutes against Denver. That feels like we’re going to see Fisher on Saturday in Milwaukee. In terms of stats, there’s honestly not much of a difference between Fisher and Gallagher, other than Gallagher playing twice as many minutes this year. You could round off both of their goals-against averages to say “allowing 11.5 goals per 60 minutes” and you can say “both stop just barely over 40% of shots on goal.”