We’ve got 12 freshmen and one grad transfer to discuss as we get ready for the season.
Welcome back to our previewing of the 2025 Marquette women’s lacrosse season!
There’s a bunch of season preview stuff in our preseason preview hub, but the thing that you most need to read before continuing here is our look at the returning players. After all, we’re talking about the newcomers on head coach Meredith Black’s roster this season here, so you need the context of how the new faces might have a chance to fit in this season.
We’ll go in the same order that we went with the returning players: Starting with attack, moving to midfield, defense, and then goalie. Most of the women we’re talking about here today are freshmen, but there is one transfer and when we get there, we’ll lead that section with a look at what she might bring to the table.
Let’s get into it!
ATTACK
I wonder if we’re going to see a lot of Julia Evens (#8, 5’10”, Minnetonka, MN) right away this season. Meredith Black has had a tendency to get a freshman involved in the offense early, and look at Meg Bireley’s 31 goal, 8 assist freshman year for evidence of how that can pay off for the Golden Eagles. Evens was the 2024 Minnesota Ms. Lacrosse, meaning she was named the best women’s lacrosse player in the state. She comes to Marquette with three all-state tournament team honors and two all-MN first team honors, but that’s just the trophies. Evens scored 196 goals in her collegiate career and assisted on another 196 for Benilde-St. Margaret’s. Even if there’s not a spot in the attack rotation for her right away, there’s a possibility that Evens could earn playing time on draw controls. She had 367 of those in her prep career, and Marquette needs a draw specialist to step up from somewhere this season. If she can win draws and generate quick strike offense out of it, even better.
SG Mazariegos (#39, 5’2”, Orlando, FL) is the second most prolific player in the recruiting class according to her official team bio. 116 goals and 30 assists in a career is pretty good stuff, and I’m guessing that means she was a key component of more than one of the three state runner-up teams she played on at Lake Highland Prep School in Florida. She was also a USA Lacrosse All-American as a senior, so I’d be fascinated to find out what her senior year stat line was.
There’s a little bit of mystery involved for Tessa Boehm (#3, 5’8”, Castle Rock, CO) and McKenna Farrell (#15, 5’3”, Sayville, NY). Boehm won a conference title every year at Castle View HS in Colorado and was a part of two state runner up teams….. but her official team bio only says that she holds the team record for assists (10) and points (14) in a game. I presume those are in the same game, but it would be pretty neat if they were two different games. In any case, that’s the only stat info in her bio, but you don’t just suddenly dish 10 assists in a game if you’re not a regular part of the team’s attack. Farrell had just 54 points in high school on 31 goals and 23 assists, but she was team MVP as a senior at Sayville HS….. on Long Island. I’m guessing it was a bit of a chore to get into the rotation on a LI high school team, so I’m not going to take too much away from what otherwise looks like a small-ish amount of points from someone who’s going to play Division 1 lacrosse. She’s also listed as attack/midfield, so maybe there’s a spot for her in MU’s rotation early on as a two-way player.
MIDFIELD
You ever read something and have immediate follow up questions? That’s me looking at Lucy Mineo’s (#13, 5’7”, Westfield, NJ) official Marquette bio. “Led team in goals and points sophomore season in 2022” prompted my brain to ask questions here. 1) Can I get some numbers here? 2) What happened junior and senior year? She was team captain senior year, so I’m guessing that she didn’t fall off a cliff, and she’s at Marquette, so I’m guessing that she didn’t suffer some kind of debilitating injury.
Laila Johnson (#11, 5’0”, Roswell, GA) doesn’t exactly miss out on questions either. “Second Team All-State in 2022.” Okay. “USA Lacrosse Honorable Mention All-American in 2023.” Okay, that’s a pretty good follow up…. but no state honors in Georgia there? What happened in 2024? I’m not terribly worried about not knowing if she’s a scorer because sometimes that’s not a midfielder’s job….. but also I’d like to have a little bit more to work with here to know how much she accomplished at Roswell HS.
DEFENSE
And so, we get around to the section with Marquette’s lone incoming transfer this season. That’s Devon Ortman (#34, 5’6”, Oakland, CA), who comes to MU after three seasons at Colorado College, which is a Division 3 team. She was a starter pretty much from the get-go for the Tigers, and was a Third-Team All-American according to the IWLCA last season. For the full three years with Colorado College, Ortman racked up 124 ground balls, 56 goals, 66 assists — yes, as a defender — and 39 caused turnovers. That’s pretty good, and she had 278 draw controls, too. I’m not 100% sure exactly how Ortman is eligible to play for Marquette here, since she was at Fresno State in 2021 and played in all 14 of the Bulldogs’s games before the school shut down the program following the season. Maybe the NCAA granted a waiver to all the FSU players because the school declared the program’s end after the school year started? Anyway, Ortman had 6 goals and 4 assists that year to go with 26 ground balls, 8 caused turnovers, and 21 draw controls. She’s at Marquette for a reason, so I’d imagine Black and her staff will find a way to make use of Ortman regularly.
Ortman might not be the only newcomer prepared to jump straight into the fray for Marquette. Taylor Alexander (#32, 5’7”, Raleigh, NC) is coming off winning three state titles at Cardinal Gibbons in Raleigh and four straight years as a first team all-North Carolina player. While her squad was going 73-9, she racked up 191 ground balls and 111 caused turnovers. I can’t say for certain that kind of activity will translate direct to being a good Division 1 player, but it’s certainly not going to hurt, y’know? Azaria Lejuene-Woloszyn (#36, 5’2”, Livonia, MI) matched Alexander with four all-Michigan First Team honors and tacked on a pair of US Lacrosse and Under Armour All-American honors, too. Maybe the most interesting part here? She’s doing this at 5’2”. When you’re a stopper, you’re a stopper, I guess. Abby Brackett (#30, 5’4”, Novato, CA) earned team MVP honors as a junior and a senior at San Marin HS in California, and check these senior year stats out: 104 draw controls, 72 ground balls, 105 goals, and 22 assists. I don’t know if she’s going to turn into a transition threat — although Brackett did play three years of varsity soccer, too — but she’s got multi-dimensional skills on the field. You’d have to guess that she’s a candidate for MU’s draw team as well if she can win over 100 draws in one high school season.
Nothing against Hannah Evens (#28, 5’4”, Nantucket, MA) or Addyson Graham (#41, 5’4”, Liverpool, NY), but their official Marquette team bios just don’t jump off the screen at you and say “ah, yes, I see how they might play minutes right away.” IMPORTANT NOTE: It does not appear that Hannah Evens from Massachusetts and Julia Evens from Minnesota are related. At the very least, their MU bios neglect to mention if that’s the case, although both of their fathers have very similar names (Eric for Julia, Erik for Hannah).
GOALIE
Marquette needs an answer at goalie in 2025. If that answer is Zoey Gottlieb (#22, 5’3”, Worthington, OH), then so be it. She wrapped up her prep career at Thomas Worthington HS in the Columbus area with all-Ohio First Team honors, so that’s pretty good. There’s reasons to ask whether or not Brynna Nixon or Mikayla Yang can take the job after last season’s performances. I’d lean towards one of them being the opening day starter, but I’m not going to be shocked if Gottlieb beats them to the job out of preseason training.
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