Marquette hosts Midwest Lacrosse Classic

March 1, 2017

2017 Marquette Men's Lacrosse - Game 3
rv Marquette (1-1) vs. No. 20/17 Ohio State (4-0)
Date	Friday, March 3 \| 7 p.m.
Location	Valley Fields \| Milwaukee
Live Links	\| Watch Live
2017 Midwest Lacrosse Classic
Detroit (1-4) vs. Bellarmine (1-2)
Date	Friday, March 3 \| 2 p.m.
Live Links	\| Watch Live
2017 Midwest Lacrosse Classic
Ohio State vs. Bellarmine
Date	Sunday, March 5 \| noon
Live Links	\| Watch Live
2017 Marquette Men's Lacrosse - Game 4
Marquette vs. Detroit
Date	Sunday, March 5 \| 3 p.m.
Live Links	\| Watch Live
Social Media	Twitter (in-game updates) \| Facebook \| Instagram
Materials	Game Notes \| Record Book

MILWAUKEE - The Marquette University men's lacrosse team will host the Midwest Lacrosse Classic for the first time this weekend at Valley Fields when it hosts No. 20/17 Ohio State, Detroit and Bellarmine for games on Friday, March 3 and Sunday, March 5.

The Golden Eagles (1-1) will first face the Buckeyes (4-0) on Friday at 7 p.m. before playing Detroit (1-4) at 3 p.m. on Sunday. In the two other games, Bellarmine (1-2) will play Detroit at 2 p.m. on Friday and Ohio State on Sunday at noon.

Tickets are sold out, but there is a possibility some may be released for Saturday's game against Detroit. Stay tuned to Marquette men's lacrosse on Twitter and Facebook for more information. Tickets for the non-Marquette games are available by contacting the Marquette Ticket office at 414-288-4668.

All four games will have a live video stream with Marquette's games coming through GoMarquette.com and the games including Bellarmine through the Marquette Wire's YouTube channel.

Marquette is coming off a 9-2 loss at then-No. 15/14 Richmond on Saturday afternoon in which goalie Cole Blazer made a career-best 15 saves. All-American attackman Ryan McNamara scored MU's last goal right before halftime to pull the Golden Eagles as close as they would get at 5-2.

The Buckeyes enter the weekend with all four wins coming at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center in Columbus and will play their first road game Friday night against Marquette. Johnny Pearson leads OSU in scoring with nine goals, while Colin Chell has posted seven tallies, including four in extra-man situations. OSU downed Marquette 12-8 at Ohio Stadium last spring despite McNamara's four-goal effort as goalie Tom Carey made 16 saves against MU.

Detroit's lone victory this season came 12-11 over Jacksonville on Feb. 23 and it sports a 14-8 loss to Ohio State in its season opener. Matthew Vangalen leads UDM with 19 points on eight goals and 11 assists, while Kyle Beauregard has also put up eight goals on a team-high 30 shots. The last meeting between the Titans and Golden Eagles in the 2016 Midwest Lacrosse Classic resulted in a 10-8 MU victory as Marquette's face-off crew, led by Zachary Melillo went 19-of-20 on the afternoon.

Marquette is 4-0 all-time against Detroit and 1-3 against OSU with the lone win in that series coming in 2015 after MU completed a four-goal fourth quarter comeback.

After this weekend's action, Marquette will hit the road again to take on Robert Morris on Saturday, March 12.

DEFENSE ADJUSTS TO NEW LEADERSHIP
- One of the main tasks for head coach Joe Amplo with the 2017 squad is maintaining a defense that has to replace three USILA All-Americans (Liam Byrnes, B.J. Grill and Jacob Richard) from Marquette's top defensive unit of a year ago. The Golden Eagles boasted one of the NCAA's stoutest defenses in 2016, surrendering just 8.13 goals per contest (eighth in NCAA Division I), but return just one starter at defenseman in senior Nick Eufrasio along with goalie Cole Blazer.

2016 Top Defensive Unit (^ - USILA All-American):
LSM -- Tyler Gilligan
SSDM -- Jacob Richard^
D -- Liam Byrnes^, B.J. Grill^, Nicholas Eufrasio
G -- Cole Blazer

2017 Top Defensive Unit (* - returning starter):
LSM -- Noah Richard
SSDM -- Griffin Connor
D -- Jackson Ehlert, Nick Grill, Nicholas Eufrasio*
G -- Cole Blazer*

DEPTH ON DISPLAY IN RECORD-BREAKING SEASON OPENER
- Marquette's dominant 17-1 season-opening victory at Jacksonville featured 14 different goal scorers, including eight players registering their first career tallies. MU head coach Joe Amplo pulled most of his starters after taking an 11-0 lead through three quarters of action to allow his younger players to get extended time. The Golden Eagles outscored JU, 6-1, in the fourth quarter, led by a pair of goals from freshman Dylan Dobrosky in his first career game.

- The win over the Dolphins also set new program records for goals scored (17) and fewest allowed (1) in a single contest. The goals scored record surpassed the previous total of 15 from March 15, 2014 against Detroit, while the previous goals allowed record was set at Richmond in a 7-2 win on Feb. 27, 2016.

MCNAMARA'S RECORD-SETTING OFFENSIVE PRODUCTION FUELS MU
- MU's lone All-BIG EAST Preseason Team honoree Ryan McNamara propelled the Golden Eagles into the 2016 postseason by breaking the Marquette single-season and career goal scoring records while earning USILA All-America recognition. McNamara became the second MU player to reach 100 career points in last year's regular season finale and passed Conor Gately's career goal mark in the process. He also broke Tyler Melnyk's single season goal and point standards with 40 and 57, respectively. A few of his rankings in MU history:

81 career goals (first)
120 career points (second)
39 career assists (second)
318 shots (first)

- The Eagan, Minnesota native became the second player in MU history to be named to the watch list for the Tewaaraton Award, the top individual honor in collegiate lacrosse. McNamara joins former teammate Conor Gately as Tewaaraton Award Watch List honorees.