The Golden Eagles host the Knights as the ranked/unranked opponent oscillation continues.
Marquette men’s lacrosse is coming off their best performance against a ranked team this season on Saturday afternoon. The Golden Eagles put themselves in a hole early with several failed clearances, but they kept on coming and at least had a chance to fight for a win heading into the fourth quarter against #12 Harvard.
The question is whether or not that’s a breakthrough overall for Marquette this season. They’ve gone back and forth between “get shelled by a ranked team” and “win fairly comfortably against an unranked team” through five games this year so far, and Bellarmine comes to Milwaukee on Tuesday with a sub-.500 record through seven games. Based on the trend, Marquette should, in theory, win fairly comfortably. In fact, if they’ve unlocked something about themselves — whether that’s tactically, mentally, emotionally, physically, whatever — this should be MU’s handiest win of the year.
The catch is, of course, that Marquette’s coming off short rest after a Saturday game. However, so is Bellarmine, and if they had to go from New York, then home to Louisville, and then up to Milwaukee since Saturday afternoon, that’s a rough way to go about life. If they went straight to Wisconsin, it would almost make more sense than anything else, but that does give MU an edge in terms of sleeping in your own bed time.
The point is that this is a game that MU does need to dig deep and win. They can’t turn around after Saturday’s quality showing against Harvard and let this win slip through their hands.
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Game #6: vs Bellarmine Knights (3-4)
Date: Tuesday, March 4, 2025
Time: Noon Central
Location: Andy Glockner Memorial Bubble, Valley Fields, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Streaming: FloSports
Live Stats: Sidearm Stats
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteMLax
Marquette is 5-5 all time against Bellarmine. There’s been several thrillers in this series, including starting the whole thing off with a 9-8 overtime Marquette win in 2013. The two teams have gone to overtime three times in total, and there’s been two more games decided by one goal in regulation. MU’s last win in the series came in 2022, when they won 9-8 in three overtimes. The Knights have won the last two encounters, including 11-5 last year in Kentucky.
Well, being picked to finish fourth in the ASUN behind something of a logjam in the first three spots was probably a notable sign for how the 2025 season was going to go for Bellarmine. That said, they have ben alternating wins and losses so far this year, but unlike Marquette, the Knights aren’t losing to ranked teams and beating the unranked ones. Yes, they opened up with a 26-7 shelling by #7 Duke, but the losses since then have gotten a little bit more troubling.
16-4 at Ohio State (not fun, but OSU started out ranked and hasn’t gotten back after an opening loss to Utah)
16-10 at Cleveland State (Marquette beat CSU 15-7)
15-9 at LIU (Sharks were picked to finish behind Cleveland State in the NEC)
So, that’s not fun. Well, not fun for them. Could end up being fun for Marquette.
Midfielder John Alie was a preseason all-ASUN pick, and he’s living up to the billing in a big way. Through seven games, he’s leading the Knights in both goals (22) and assists (12), so of course that means his 34 points are leading the squad. In fact, he’s got twice as many points as anyone else, as Ezra Moore is #2 with 17. Little brother Joe Alie is #2 on the team in goals with 14 already in his freshman season, while Justin Wescoat is the third double digit goal scorer with 10.
Nolan Hudnut has started all seven games in net for Bellarmine, and with the other two goalies to see playing time this year totaling up 21 minutes in four combined appearances, I presume we’ll see Hudnut on Tuesday afternoon. The freshman from Michigan stands tall in the cage at 6’3”, and he’s stopping over 48% of shots on goal. That’s pretty good, so it seems that BU’s field defense is partially responsible for that 13.55 goals-against average as the Knights are getting outshot 44.7 to 36.3 on average. If Marquette can keep that discrepancy intact in the Valley, I like their chances.
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