The Golden Eagles have to beat the Pioneers in a regular season game for the first time in program history in order to reach the Big East tournament
One “ah, shoot, just missed it” overtime loss to #14 Georgetown.
One blown two goal lead with 2:15 to play against Villanova.
One no-show in a 14-2 loss at Providence.
Mix that all together, and you’ve got Marquette men’s lacrosse staring at their regular season finale against an opponent they’ve never beaten in a regular season game, hoping to get a win to shove themselves into the Big East tournament. Take any one of those three contests and turn them the other way, and Marquette’s looking pretty good right now. Instead, they have to beat Denver on Friday night in the Valley to get into the postseason in Jake Richard’s first season in charge.
Marquette is 1-3 and in fifth place in the Big East standings heading into the the final game day of the regular season. Denver and Providence are tied for third place at 2-2 after the Friars knocked off the Pioneers last weekend. If Marquette beats Denver, then they are both 2-3 and the Golden Eagles hold the head-to-head tiebreaker. If MU beats DU and St. John’s beats Providence to drop the Friars to 2-3 as well, then PC is 2-0, MU is 1-1, and Denver is 0-2 in that little three team league in the standings. A Marquette win puts the Golden Eagles in and the Pioneers out, it’s that simple.
Of course, nothing about this season has been “that simple” for the Golden Eagles. Those shortcomings against Georgetown and Villanova stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Marquette’s close calls against Utah and Air Force back in March. Both of those games turned out as one goal wins. If the Golden Eagles can harness that kind of energy, I like their chances against a Denver squad that’s been having a few problems this season.
But if the “let’s throw the ball all over Rhode Island” team shows up from that loss to Providence? Could be a long night in the Valley, and therefore a very long offseason in Milwaukee.
REMINDER: Marquette’s home contests are streamed nearly exclusively on FloSports, and the same goes for almost all Big East home games and almost all league schedule contests. If you are paying full price for FloSports at $30 a month, you are doing it wrong. Please use this link to pay $20 via the new-ish FloCollege offering.
Big East Game #5: vs Denver Pioneers (7-6, 2-2 Big East)
Date: Friday, April 25, 2025
Time: 6pm Central
Location: Valley Fields, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Streaming: FloSports
Live Stats: Sidearm Stats
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteMLax
Bluesky Updates: @AnonymousEagle
Marquette is 2-13 all time against Denver. Both wins came in the Big East tournament, first in the 2016 championship game when Denver was ranked #1 in the country, and then in the 2017 semifinals when the Pioneers were ranked #2 in the country. 12 of the 13 losses have come in the regular season, including last year’s 15-9 game in Colorado. This will be the first time in series history that Denver is not ranked for this game and just the third time they are not ranked in the top 10.
That last sentence of my usual standard “here’s the all-time series” paragraph really lets you know how much this season is not going well at all for Denver. I suspect that you figured it out from the “might miss the Big East tournament” conversation up above, but “not ranked for the first time in over a decade when facing the Golden Eagles” thing really drives it home. The really bad part for the Pioneers is that they started out the season ranked #10 in the country in the Inside Lacrosse media poll. This is not how this was supposed to go.
It didn’t really start to go sideways on them until the calendar turned to March. Through six games, DU was 4-2 with the two losses coming against top 10 ranked teams: #8 Johns Hopkins to start the year and then #3 Cornell in their fourth contest. The Cornell loss wasn’t fun in the slightest, as they fell 15-5, but y’know, things happen.
Then they went to Yale, and turned into the Bulldogs’ first win of the season in five tries. That’s not the bad part. The bad part is that they were down 6-0 in the first seven minutes. The really bad part is that Yale is still only 5-6 on the year.
Denver followed that up with a home loss to #9 Ohio State, but then beat #7 Duke. Okay! Things are turning around! Overtime loss at home against Villanova. Shoot. Beat #13 Georgetown on the road, in a slightly ridiculous 7-3 game. Okay!
And that takes us to last weekend, when they lost at home, 10-6, to Providence. That moved the Friars to 6-7 on the year. PC jumped out to a 6-0 lead halfway through the second quarter. Yeesh.
Their numbers say they’re good, or at least frisky. #28 in offensive efficiency according to Lacrosse Reference, and #15 on the defensive side of the ball. #11 in overall team strength, too. Noah Manning and Mic Kelly are two of the eight most productive goal scorers in the Big East, with both guys averaging between 2.4 and 2.0 goals per game. Cody Malawsky and Marek Tzagournis give them some secondary scoring with both guys averaging more than two points per game. They’ve got guys who can do stuff, but as you can tell from the losses, it just hasn’t quite all come together for them at the best times, or even at a regular clip.
Malcolm Kleban is the goalie here, and he’s having a pretty good season even if Grayson Manning did start three games along the way. Kleban is sitting on just 9.20 goals allowed per 60 minutes of action, so trying to score against Denver is a miserable experience. Giving up just three goals to Georgetown is pretty solid evidence of that, and Kleban’s stopping over 55% of shots on goal. That’s tops in the Big East by a pretty healthy margin.
Follow Anonymous Eagle on social media
Facebook: AnonymousEagle
Instagram: AnonymousEagleSBN
Bluesky: AnonymousEagle