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Marquette women’s lacrosse misses tournament-clinching opportunity in 14-13 loss to Georgetown

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In its Big East regular season finale, Marquette women’s lacrosse needed a win against Georgetown to clinch its spot in the conference tournament — a chance head coach Meredith Black and her squad missed out on by three goals last season.

Despite a double hat trick from junior attacker Tess Osburn, the top two scorers on the team — senior attacker Meg Bireley and senior midfielder Hanna Bodner — could only tally one goal each. The Golden Eagles (9-6, 3-3 Big East) could have rewritten history, but fell short 14-13 to the Hoyas (9-6, 4-1 Big East) Saturday in Washington, D.C.

Marquette now loses control of its destiny and now depends on UConn to lose its game against Georgetown next Saturday to punch its ticket to the tournament.

A defense-heavy start

Between two teams that each score an average of 14 goals per game, the matchup started as a defensive battle.

Neither team could find the back of the cage until five minutes in when Georgetown’s Hannah Bishop broke past her defender and shot past the right side of senior goalie Brynna Nixon to score.

Marquette took that personally — especially Osburn. Only 20 seconds later, she grabbed a pass from behind the net and shot quick to score her 100th career goal, making her only the ninth player in Marquette history to do so.

There were only four goals scored in the first quarter. On Georgetown’s end, its quick-to-collapse zone defense made scoring hard for Marquette, but Nixon’s critical saves prevented the Hoyas from scoring.

Though, Georgetown grabbed the next goal. After that, Anne McGovern scored on a free position attempt, but it was reversed because she crossed the goalie crease during the attempt.

The Golden Eagles didn’t wait to seize the chance. Isabelle Casucci took a fadeaway shot at Hoya goalie Leah Warehime’s feet to even the matchup 2-2 with four minutes left in the first quarter.

Georgetown fights to keep the advantage

To start the second quarter, the Hoyas took off by efficiently scoring four unanswered goals with only four shots in the first five minutes to put them up 6-2.

Marquette couldn’t get a shot of its own until there was 5:27 left in the first half. Sophomore attacker CJ Meehan then scored, which gave the Golden Eagles some momentum. They scored the following goal and closed out the half down by three.

During those two Golden Eagle goals, Nixon made two critical saves to keep Marquette in the game. She finished the day with eight.

In the third quarter, the scoring floodgates opened. During the first half, the two teams scored a combined 11 goals and in the third quarter, there were 10. The Golden Eagles had continued the momentum they kindled at the end of the first half. They scored the first two goals and didn’t let Georgetown gain possession until two and a half minutes in.

Though, the Hoyas continued to find answers for these short Marquette runs. The point differential shrunk to as little as one and grew to as much as three, but Marquette could never tie or lead the matchup.

With 13:13 left to play, Georgetown’s Anne McGovern scored on a free position attempt to give the Hoyas a four-goal lead.

From there, Georgetown started picking up more draw controls and Marquette began turning the ball over in critical situations where it needed to score to continue a run or stop the Hoyas’ momentum. Georgetown was playing to run out the clock by this point.

Each team scored one more goal (14-10) and with 1:54 left to play, the Golden Eagles would score three quick goals to bring the score within one (14-13). But a lost draw control lost them the final possession they needed to tie the game.

Up next

The Golden Eagles will face non-conference opponent Eastern Michigan in Ypsilanti, Michigan April 25 at 11 a.m. CST. The broadcast will be held by ESPN+.

This recap was written by Benjamin Hanson. He can be reached at benjamin.hanson@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @benhansonMU.