The Golden Eagles head to Philadelphia for their last road game of the regular season.
I’m old enough to remember when Marquette men’s lacrosse had a four game winning streak just barely snuffed out in double overtime by the #14 team in the country. Good vibes were bountiful.
And then MU laid a rain soaked egg last week, falling 14-2 to Providence. Pointing out the weather’s not a fair thing to do here, because the Golden Eagles could not hold on to the ball in that game, turning it over on more than 70% of their possessions while PC did not have any problems on their end. The game wasn’t a slop fest, Marquette was bad, perhaps the worst they’ve been all season. Managing just one goal against Michigan was bad, but at least the Wolverines were ranked and it was the first game with Jake Richard as head coach.
Last Saturday in Rhode Island? No idea what the problem was, but Marquette needs to solve it immediately or they’re on their way out of the four team Big East tournament.
Marquette and Providence are currently tied for fourth place at 1-2 in the Big East, one game back of Denver and Georgetown at 2-1. If MU and PC end up tied in two weeks, then the Friars get the tiebreaker because of the head-to-head win. That means Marquette has to go get at least one win, perhaps two in order to put themselves into position for a postseason appearance.
The kind of play that had Marquette thisclose to beating Georgetown, not to mention winning four straight before that, should be the kind of play that gets them a win in their next two games. But if the “hey, wait, what do I do with this ball?” kind of play we saw against Providence pops up again with the season on the line….. well, then, I’ve got real questions to be asked, questions I thought I was going to be able to put away over the last month of lacrosse or so.
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Big East Game #4: at Villanova Wildcats (6-5, 3-0 Big East)
Date: Saturday, April 19, 2025
Time: 11am Central
Location: Villanova Stadium, Villanova, Pennsylvania
Streaming: FloSports
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteMLax
Marquette is 3-10 all time against Villanova. This looked like it was turning into quite the rivalry when MU toppled #6 Villanova at Valley Fields back in 2016 and then followed that up with a W in the Big East tournament semifinals a month later. That gave the Golden Eagles a 3-2 edge in the series…… and MU hasn’t won since. They had a couple of overtime losses in there, including the last time these squads met in Pennsylvania, back in 2023.
Villanova’s season has been all over the place. 15-5 home loss to #12 Penn State after giving up nine unanswered goals in the third and fourth quarters. 13-11 home win over #9 Yale, holding off a late Bulldogs comeback. 16-5 home loss to a Colgate team that was earning top 20 votes after the Raiders scored 12 straight goals from midway through the first to midway through the third, and that kicked off a run of four losses in five games. The last two were to #18 Penn and #20 Saint Joseph’s, so it’s not the worst thing, but it’s also not paying off the promise of the Yale win.
The Wildcats got past Brown, 16-9, in their last non-conference game, beat a ranked Denver team in overtime to open Big East play after coughing up the lead with 4 minutes to go, and now they’ve put themselves in position to set up a de facto regular season championship game next week against Georgetown if they can solve Marquette’s riddles. Nova is the last undefeated team in the conference, so they’re 100% in the driver’s seat here…. even if they’re only +7 in goal differential through three games.
What a weird season.
Colin Michener is the only guy on the VU roster that’s in the top 10 in goals per game this season, and he’s not doing enough to make it into the top 10 in points per game. He has 20 goals to this point of the year, falling short of two goals per game, but he is out towards 2.5 points per game thanks to tying Matt Licata for the team high in helpers with eight. Licata is only four goals behind Michener in that column, but the shot column is heavily tilted towards Michener, 96 to 76. Short version: Villanova’s trying to steer the offense to Michener, but they’re better off — slightly — when it’s Licata actually pulling the trigger.
As you might expect, it’s Villanova’s defense that’s dragging the Wildcats around this season. They’re one of the worst offenses in the country in terms of efficiency according to Lacrosse Reference, ranking at #69 out of 77 teams. The defense isn’t perfect at #27 in efficiency, but that’s just so much better than the offense, which has a tiny turnover problem. Denis Fargione has taken over the netminding to backstop the defense after the first 2.5 games of the season, and he’s played every minute since then. His numbers are pretty nice: 9.16 goals allowed per 60 minutes, .536 save percentage. That’s the second best save percentage in the Big East this season amongst regular goalies, so Marquette’s offense is going to have to be creative to find ways to beat Fargione.
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