The Golden Eagles make a weekend swing through Ohio and the Mitten State for two games.
Can’t really say much in the way of wondering what’s going on in 2025 for Marquette women’s lacrosse so far.
The Golden Eagles opened up the year with what amounts to a shakedown cruise, rolling out to an 11-0 lead against Central Michigan through late in the second quarter before winning by 12. They followed that up with a narrow home win over a Louisville squad that went 1-1 in two tightly contested games against ranked foes before they came to Milwaukee.
Barring a test against a ranked squad themselves, Marquette really couldn’t have accomplished more with their first two games. Roles for this year’s team were established, and the squad used that positivity to go hammer and tongs with a team that’s at least in the vicinity of a conversation of top 25 votes and then get the win at the end. I don’t know what it will mean for the Golden Eagles in the long term as the season goes along, but it’s hard to see the first 120 minutes of the year as anything but a roaring success.
We’ll get another chance to reevaluate how things are going after their next two games. I presume MU is staying on the road after Thursday afternoon’s game in southwest Ohio, because it’s a little silly to go all the way out there and come all the way back to Milwaukee before going out to eastern Michigan for a Sunday afternoon game….. but in theory, you could do it, as both trips could easily be bus trips? In any case, the travel is the point of what’s going on here. Marquette is going up against a team that rallied back to stay close with that Louisville team MU just beat, and then facing a top 10 ranked opponent, both on the road. Coming away from the weekend 1-1 should be seen as a success, although depending on which way the win goes, we might end up with more questions than answers.
A year ago, Marquette had a legitimate shot to beat Michigan in Wisconsin when the Wolverines were ranked #3 in the country. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think that MU might have the gas to go get the win this time around…. but we’ll have to wait and see what Sunday brings us.
Game #3: at Cincinnati Bearcats (1-2)
Date: Thursday, February 20, 2025
Time: 2pm Central
Location: Nippert Stadium, Cincinnati, Ohio
Streaming: ESPN+
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteWLax
Bluesky Updates: @AnonymousEagle
Marquette is 9-3 all time against Cincinnati. The Bearcats won the first meeting in MU’s first season as a program before the Golden Eagles grabbed control of things. UC won in 2019 and 2021, but Marquette has won the last three, including 18-12 last year in Milwaukee in the season opener.
Cincinnati got off to a bit of a rough start in 2025 after being picked to finish fourth in the Big 12. The Bearcats started off with a 13-8 loss to Vanderbilt in a battle of former Big East rivals because they gave up a 10-3 run over the final 41 minutes of the game, including getting blanked 4-0 in the final quarter. They lost by five, so yeah, that’s a rough way to go out. Game #2 gave them a hole to dig out of as Louisville was up 5-0 as things moved from Quarter 1 to Quarter 2, and UC never actually tied the game back up. They got the margin down to one goal, including on a goal from Lauren Ottensmeyer with just over five minutes left, but a late penalty ensured their doom with a UL insurance goal with less than 90 seconds left.
Game #3 went a bit better, as Cincinnati got their first win of the season by allowing just one goal in each quarter to Robert Morris and scoring at least five of their own in each of the first three frames. 11-2 at the half and 16-3 heading to the fourth is definitely one way to make sure you win. Cincinnati outshot RMU 29-9 in that one after being four shots behind the Commodores and tied with the Cardinals in that department in their first two contests.
Lauren Ottensmeyer is Cincinnati’s top scorer so far this season, potting a team high nine goals and adding two assists to lead the squad with 11 points. Camryn Callaghan is not that far behind with seven goals and three assists to get to 10 points, and she’s a more dangerous shooter, too. Callaghan has only taken 10 shots this season, so either she’s lucky or she’s great at picking her spots. Paige Selhorn is UC’s leader in assists so far at six this season, and two per game is a pretty good clip there.
Hailey Darko is Cincinnati’s goalie, and up until they were blowing out Robert Morris heading to the fourth quarter, Darko had played every minute this season. She’s allowing just 9.83 goals per 60 minutes although we have to note that she was at 12.02 heading into the RMU game where she let in just three in 45 minutes. Her save percentage on the year of .386 wasn’t boosted too much by making two stops on five shots on frame against RMU, so we’ll have to see if Marquette can get that number going downwards a bit on Thursday afternoon.
Game #4: at #8 Michigan Wolverines (1-1)
Date: Sunday, February 23, 2025
Time: 11am Central
Location: U-M Lacrosse Stadium, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Streaming: B1G+, which will set you back $13 for a month
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteWLax
Marquette is 1-3 all time against Michigan. The Golden Eagles won the first meeting back in 2014, but haven’t won since. They met in 2015 and 2016, and then renewed the series last year with an 18-11 victory by the #3 ranked Wolverines in Milwaukee.
Things happen when you challenge yourself early in the season, and that’s what’s going on with Michigan at the moment. They were #3 in the preseason Inside Lacrosse Media poll, and after a 13-5 road win over Jacksonville to start their season, they visited preseason #8 Yale for Game #2. That one got off to a bad start for the Wolverines as the Bulldogs scored the first three goals and five of the six markers in the first quarter. Michigan battled back and with the clock winding under four minutes left in the third quarter, it was a 7-6 game favoring the home team…… and then Michigan didn’t score again. Five straight for Yale, and that’s a 12-6 loss in a game between two teams with at least believable preseason designs on a national championship.
It’s not how you’d like things to go, but you tried something and it didn’t work out. We’ll see how the rest of Michigan’s season goes from there, which includes a neutral-ish site game against Central Michigan on Wednesday evening. I’m writing this preview before then because not much is going to change about the Wolverines once they face a CMU squad that MU beat 17-5 in their opener other than how many goals UM has scored on the season by the time Marquette gets to Ann Arbor.
Michigan’s scoring to this point of the year has been a bit spread out, as Kaylee Dyer has the team lead in goals with just five, and she’s only one ahead of Jill Smith. Dyer and Smith are tied for the team lead in points with six, as Smith has posted an assist on two of Michigan’s 15 goals that she hasn’t scored. Two is also tied for the team lead in assists right now, as Julia Schwabe is matching Smith. There is an intriguing thing going on through two games within the Michigan offense, as Smith is leading the team in shots with 15. She’s been as even as you can be in two games in her shots, so it’s not a situation of loading up against one opponent or the other…. it’s just that so far, her swings aren’t going in.
Erin O’Grady has played every minute in net so far this season for Michigan…. although her game log says that Michigan apparently went without a goalie for 39 seconds against Jacksonville? Seems like more of a scoring failure than anything else. Anyway, she’s been great, stopping over 56% of shots on goal through two games. Even giving up 12 goals against Yale didn’t damage her numbers too bad, as she’s at 8.55 goals per 60 minutes this season. O’Grady was UM’s starter last season and tore it up with a goals-against average of 7.68 and a save percentage of .535, so she’s right in line with what 2024 looked like for her. She didn’t play against Marquette last year as the Golden Eagles were giving the #3 ranked Wolverines a heck of a lot of trouble, so we’ll see where head coach Hannah Nielsen goes this time around.
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