It’s a very similar schedule to the ones we’ve seen in the past, which perhaps does raise questions about what’s changing in Jake Richard’s first season in charge.
The 2025 Marquette Golden Eagles men’s lacrosse schedule was released to the waiting public on Thursday afternoon, and, well, it seems like new head coach Jake Richard is sticking with what he knows best.
In his first season as a Division 1 head coach, Richard is sending his team into non-conference battle against two teams that have been on the schedule every single season in program history except for skips because of COVID reasons and a third team that’s been on the slate all but one year minus a COVID skip in the rotation. Six of the eight non-conference games are against teams that were on the schedule a year ago, while there is just one first time opponent in the other two.
This of course returns us to the question raised by promoting Richard, who retains his title as the only person involved in each and every game in Marquette history as a result: What’s going to change under his guidance? Andrew Stimmel went 21-41 in his time as the head coach, all with Richard next to him on the sideline as an assistant coach. That made it clear that something needed to change, but giving the top job to Richard tells us that the MU administration doesn’t think that much needs changing. Same goes for allowing Richard to retain Will Roberts on his staff as well as bringing in defenseman Mason Woodward fresh off his playing days as an assistant coach.
If it’s not much about the day to day operation that’s going to change, then we have to expect that the results have to change after Marquette went 2-9 a year ago against the 11 teams that are on both the 2024 and 2025 calendars. That wasn’t good enough to keep Stimmel in charge…. and it’s definitely not going to be good enough to get Richard off on the right foot.
Here’s what the new head coach said about his schedule in the press release:
“We are looking forward to testing ourselves against another tough schedule beginning with a Big Ten opponent in the season opener and the reigning national champs two weeks later,” Richard said. “The BIG EAST has proven to be one of the elite conferences in the sport and we will do our best to prepare the team to the rigors of that schedule at the end of the year.”
Personally, I would have tried to schedule myself into some wins.
Things do not start out easy for Richard, as he’ll take the Golden Eagles on the road against an NCAA tournament team in two of MU’s first three games. The first is a visit to Ann Arbor on Saturday, February 1, after Michigan lost to #5 seeded Denver — hey, look a Big East team — in the national championship tourney a year ago. The home opener is one week later against Detroit Mercy, and then it’s back out on the road to see Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Not only are the Irish now the two-time reigning national champions, but Marquette is winless against them in 12 tries.
February wraps up with a home game against Cleveland State, which is the Vikings’ first time on the schedule since 2021. The only completely new face in the non-conference slate is up next, as Marquette opens up March with a visit to Harvard. The Crimson went 8-5 a year ago, including a season opening 23-7 victory over a Providence team that went on to beat Marquette 13-10. MU returns home three days later for the only mid-week game of the entire season, as they’ll host Bellarmine at Noon on a Tuesday in early March for…. some…. reason.
There are two Rocky Mountain teams on the schedule back-to-back to close non-conference play, but MU won’t be knocking them both out on one trip or anything like that. They’ll visit Utah on March 15 as they search for the program’s first win against the Utes in four tries, and then come back to the midwest to face Air Force one week later. Please note: I said “the midwest” there, as that’s a neutral-ish site game at Loyola Academy down in the Chicagoland area. That’s on the same Saturday as the opening weekend of the NCAA basketball tournaments, and I might talk myself into going down there for that game if the schedule works in my favor.
MU’s first two Big East games are at home, as they’ll tangle with St. John’s on the last Saturday of March and then get Georgetown in Milwaukee on the first Saturday of April. Providence and Villanova will be road trips on each of the next two Saturdays, and Marquette will wrap up Richard’s first season in charge with a home game against Denver. Because no matter what, Marquette must always play Denver last.
Keep yourself tuned to the schedule page, as we’re still waiting on start times for seven of MU’s 13 games in the spring.
Here’s the full schedule as we know it right now.