The Golden Eagles host the Cardinals for some BIRD ON BIRD VIOLENCE in the 2025 home opener!
Marquette women’s lacrosse got a no-doubt-about-it win over Central Michigan in their season opener. Hard to argue with the results of going up 11-0 in the first 26 minutes of the game or holding CMU without even a single shot until there was less than eight minutes left in the first quarter. Marquette even got a 40% save percentage from Brynna Nixon in the five shots on goal that she saw in the 30 minutes that she played before giving way at halftime and MU up big already.
More importantly though, Game #1 of the year gave us some answers as to how this year’s Golden Eagles are going to fit together. It looks like Lorelai VanGuilder might be leading the draw control squad as she led MU with four in the game. It also seems like MU might need to tighten up their draw control game because even though the scoreboard went 17-5 in their favor, draw controls were only 14-11. Four of MU’s wins there are credited as Team Wins, so that seems like they were generated either by CMU fouls or out of bounds calls. That kind of thing is luck more than accomplishment, and MU can’t guarantee that will happen every time out. Then again, draws were 7-2 in the first quarter while the Golden Eagles were running wild, so maybe things are okay there.
We also saw the debuts of a few women in a Marquette uniform, but we want to highlight Tessa Boehm and Addyson Graham here. Both women are freshmen, so getting into the starting lineup right out of the gate is pretty notable. Boehm appears to be right at home on attack already, getting a goal, two assists, and four ground balls in her first ever collegiate game. Graham was in the lineup on defense, and officially, her only contribution in the stat book is one foul. Still, when you’re a starting defender and your team is pitching a shutout for 26 minutes, you’re probably doing something (or a lot of things) right.
Some questions still remain, mostly by way of the opener being on the road and so it’s hard to tell some things outside of the box score. My biggest question is a few notable absences from the game. CJ Meehan had 25 points a year ago, she didn’t play. Molly Powers started all 17 games a year ago, she didn’t play. Devon Ortman is the only incoming transfer on the roster, and while she’s coming up from Division 3 Colorado College, it’s a little surprising that she made the choice to be in Milwaukee and then not get on the field in a blowout.
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.
Game #2: vs Louisville Cardinals (2-1)
Date: Monday, February 17, 2025
Time: Noon Central
Location: Andy Glockner Memorial Bubble, Valley Fields, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Streaming: FloSports
Live Stats: Sidearm Stats
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteWLax
Marquette is 2-11 all time against Louisville. The Cardinals took the first five meetings in the series, so it’s been 4-2 UL in the last six. Marquette won the last time these two teams played in Milwaukee, while Louisville snagged the 14-9 victory a year ago in the Bluegrass State.
Louisville made a lot of noise in their season opener, and noise that’s particularly relevant to Marquette. They picked up a 10-8 home win over then-#15 Denver, and the Pioneers are of course the preseason favorite in the Big East. UL had to hold on to win that one after taking a 10-5 lead early in the fourth quarter before DU closed it to 10-8 with 6:27 to play. The Cards didn’t allow another goal after that…. but they also didn’t score one, either.
Winning a close game against a ranked foe is pretty good. Winning a close game against an unranked foe as the follow up is less good, and that’s what they did against Cincinnati. Louisville had a 10-6 lead early in the fourth but allowed three unanswered Bearcat goals to make it 10-9 with five minutes left. After adding a late insurance goal there, UL lost their next game, falling 9-6 on the road against #24 Ohio State on Saturday. This time it was close the whole way through before the Buckeyes threw in three goals in the final 5:08.
So: Is that win over Denver telling us more about the Pios than it is about the Cardinals? Seems like it? Maybe? After all, Louisville was picked to finish 10th in the 12 team ACC this season…. which is more about there being eight ACC teams in the Inside Lacrosse preseason top 25 more than it is about Louisville. But still!
Through three games, Negai Nakazawa is the #1 name on the scouting report for Marquette on Monday. She has five goals and four assists for nine points. Nakazawa is tied for the team lead in goals with Lauren Figas, but leads the Cardinals in the other two categories. She’s coming off a 24 goal/11 assist season a year ago, and three of those goals came in the win over Marquette. The Golden Eagles will be well aware of the damage that Nakazawa can cause. With that said, Nakazawa is the only one of UL’s top five scorers returning from last season. The Cardinals are kind of figuring a thing or two out after losing four 20 goal scorers, including Negai’s big sister Kokoro who led UL in goals, assists, and points last season.
The Cardinals do have an experienced netminder running the show in the back end, as J Pleck returns for her senior year. She started nine times as a freshman in 2022, but didn’t get a start at all over the past two years while playing in 15 games. With three starts and every minute of action in 2025, Pleck is already past the minutes total she had in either of the past two campaigns. Her stats are superb so far: Just 8.67 goals allowed per 60 minutes of action and a save percentage of .519. It’s not likely that Pleck’s save percentage will stay north of 50% on the year, only five women in the country managed that last season…. but she did post a .432 in 121 minutes a year ago.
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