The Golden Eagles host the Pioneers with first place in the Big East on the line….. and this might end up deciding the regular season title eventually, too???
On Wednesday afternoon, Marquette and Denver square off in a Big East women’s lacrosse game that will help settle a tie atop the league standings through two games. It won’t 100% settle that tie, because it’s a three-way tie with Villanova joining the Golden Eagles and the Pioneers at 2-0. But someone is walking away from MU/DU with a loss in league play, and so that’s going to shift the standings one way or another.
The history of Big East women’s lacrosse for the last several years say that it will be Denver walking away at 3-0. The Pioneers have not lost to a Big East opponent at all since dropping the conference tournament title game to Georgetown in double overtime…. on May 4, 2019. They have not lost a regular season Big East game since an 18-13 loss to Florida on April 21, 2018, and they have not lost to a current member of the Big East since an 8-7 loss to Georgetown on April 4, 2018.
Denver has won 34 straight Big East regular season games. Denver has won 36 straight games against Big East opponents, including their conference tournament contests. Marquette is 0-9 all time against Denver.
Except…….
Well, this is the first time that these two teams will play since 2018 where Denver is not ranked for the game. 2018, of course, is the season where Denver last took a regular season Big East loss. If there is a better set up for Marquette to break Denver’s run both in the league and against the Golden Eagles specifically, I’d like to see it.
The Big East regular season title can not be won on Wednesday, not by either team, not with three more games to go in conference play after that. What Marquette can do in 60 minutes of lacrosse, though, is crack open a pathway to a Big East title, the first in program history. Maybe they can still find a way to get there with a loss, but a win over the preseason favorites? That would put the Golden Eagles in the driver’s seat for the rest of the year.
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 #3: vs Denver Pioneers (7-4, 2- Big East)
Date: Wednesday, April 2, 2025
Time: Noon Central
Location: Andy Glockner Memorial Bubble, Valley Fields, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Streaming: FloSports
Live Stats: Sidearm Stats
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteWLax
Bluesky Updates: @AnonymousEagle
Marquette is 0-9 all time against Denver. The series started in 2016 when the Pioneers joined the Big East as an affiliate member, and they’ve played every year that’s there’s been conference action since, including twice in the very weird 2021 campaign. This is the third time in the series that Denver won’t be ranked for the game, and the first since 2018.
Denver was the preseason favorite in the Big East, which makes sense because they were also #15 in the country in the Inside Lacrosse preseason poll. Things have not gone super swimmingly for the Pioneers since then. In fact, they started off really bad, by way of back-to-back losses to a pair of unranked teams on the first weekend of the season. 10-8 at Louisville, and 9-5 at Ohio State. For those of you playing along at home, yes, that’s the same Louisville team that Marquette beat 13-10 just 10 days after they beat Denver. The Louisville game wasn’t even as close as that score says it was, as the Cardinals had a 9-4 lead at the start of the fourth quarter, and they were up 10-5 with 12 minutes to go. Denver had pulled it within 10-8 with six minutes left, but that’s as close as they got before UL closed the door.
Denver got on track from there, winning their next three games, including kicking Arizona State around, 21-12, thanks to a 7-2 second quarter solving a 5-2 deficit and an 8-2 fourth quarter letting the Pioneers pull away. That’s the same Arizona State team that Marquette needed overtime to top at home last week, by the way. Denver took two more losses after that, but it’s hard to fault them for 14-10 at then-#9 Maryland. 17-8 at home to then-#18 Stony Brook? That’s not ideal, but at least it’s a loss to a ranked team? That one was their last contest before Big East play started, and they opened up with an 18-2 throttling of Xavier and a 16-13 bit of a nailbiter against Georgetown last time out. Denver was up 15-11 with six minutes left after a goal from Lauren Black, but it was just 15-13 at the 2:53 mark, and that’s a lot of time for lacrosse. The Pios held off the Hoyas down the stretch and got one last insurance goal in the final 10 seconds.
The aforementioned Lauren Black is the top scorer on the Denver roster, putting up 33 goals in 10 games this year. The one she missed was the Xavier game, and DU definitely did not miss here there. Any concern you might have about her health after missing the game against the Musketeers can be wiped away by her six goal performance against the Hoyas. Marquette can not give up free position attempts to Black, as she’s gotten nine of their goals that way this season on 15 attempts.
Black is the top scorer, but partially due to that missed game, Olivia Ripple is actually Denver’s top shooter this season, pipping Black 68-66 in the total shots department. She’s put up 26 goals to this point of the year, so Marquette has to devote quality attention to her as well. Same probably goes for Raegan Wilson, who has a team high 21 assists this season.
Emelia Bohi has played all but about 150 minutes in net so far this season for Denver. Bohi was the only goalkeeper on the preseason all-conference team that the Big East coaches voted on this season, but she was denied an individual honor because they went with only Defensive Player and not Goalkeeper as well. Amongst regulars in the Big East, Bohi has the second best goals-against average at 10.97 and the second best save percentage at .442. Lacrosse Reference has Denver at #13 in defensive efficiency this season, so cracking that riddle is going to be the harder of Marquette’s two tasks on Wednesday. Generally speaking, I like MU’s odds of slowing down LaxRef’s #74 offense.
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