Marquette welcomes Michigan on Saturday at noon

3/13/2019 1:27:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse

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The Golden Eagles look to avenge last season's loss in Ann Arbor

By: Communications

MILWAUKEE – After snapping a three-game losing streak on Tuesday afternoon, the Marquette University men's lacrosse team returns to Valley Fields to host the University of Michigan on Saturday, March 16.

The noon Central time game will air live at GoMarquette.com/watch with Patrick Reed on the call.

Following Saturday's contest, Marquette begins BIG EAST Conference action on Saturday, March 23 at Georgetown in a BIG EAST Digital Network game.

GAME DETAILS
Marquette (3-3) vs. Michigan (3-2)
Valley Fields (Milwaukee)
Saturday, March 16 at noon CT
TICKETS

LIVE COVERAGE
VIDEO | STATS | GAME NOTES (PDF) | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM

MARQUETTE (3-3): The Golden Eagles snapped a three-game losing streak on Tuesday afternoon with a 17-15 victory at Robert Morris in which they tied a program record for goals. Redshirt senior Tanner Thomson tied his own career-best with six points on four goals and a pair of assists, while graduate student Andrew Romagnoli also tallied four markers. MU trailed 3-0 after the first 1:27 of regulation but used a pair of 5-0 runs in the second quarter and at the start of the fourth quarter to secure the victory. Thomson and John Wagner currently share the team lead with 16 points on the season and goalie John Hulsman owns all three of the MU victories in net.

MICHIGAN (3-2): The Wolverines are coming off a 17-11 loss to No. 4 Yale and Saturday's game will mark the final of four-straight games away from Ann Arbor. Goaltender Tommy Heidt made 23 saves on Sunday against the Bulldogs and has played every minute of the season so far for the Wolverines, who were tied 4-4 with Yale early in the second quarter. All three of U-M's wins this season have come against common opponents with MU, as Michigan began the season with a 10-8 win over Cleveland State and captured an 11-10 win over Jacksonville on Feb. 23. Michigan also defeated Marquette's BIG EAST counterpart St. John's, 16-11, on March 2. Alex Buckanavage and Kevin Mack have each posted 21 points on the season to lead the squad, while Brent Noseworthy joins the pair as a double-digit scorer with 10 goals.

KEY STORYLINES:

Tanner Thomson became just the sixth player in Marquette history to reach 50 career goals with his fourth of the day at RMU. He joins Ryan McNamara (102), Conor Gately (77), Kyle Whitlow (70), John Wagner (61) and Tyler Melnyk (59) on the prestigious list.
Saturday marks the second regular season meeting between the two programs, who have been common scrimmage competitors since the Wolverines announced they were adding their varsity program.
Marquette fielded its full roster in Tuesday's win at Robert Morris and tied a program-high with 17 goals in the win.
Last year's loss at Michigan was the final loss of a three-game losing streak for MU that came with All-BIG EAST LSM Noah Richard and faceoff specialist Zachary Melillo out of the lineup.
Michigan took a 7-1 lead early in the second quarter of last year's meeting and Griffin Fleming's hat trick for Marquette were his first career goals.
MU has three Michigan natives on its roster in Bob Pelton (Grand Rapids), Patrick English (Grand Rapids) and Connor Marsh (Rochester), while Canadian John Wagner won two state titles at Cranbrook Kingswood High School (Bloomfield Hills).
Seventeen players have scored a goal for Marquette and nine have at least six points.
Freshman Jack Devine took 22 face-offs at Robert Morris and won 10. The Californian is an offensive midfielder who started working with the face-off specialists in the last few weeks.
The Marquette program and head coach Joe Amplo are closing in on 50 victories all-time. The Golden Eagles are 49-48 in their seventh season of existence.

SERIES HISTORY: Michigan leads 1-0
3/17/18 A L, 12-7

CAREER VERSUS MICHIGAN:

John Wagner: 1 GP/GS, 2g, 12 shots
Griffin Fleming: 1 GP/GS, 3g, 4 gb
Brendon Connolly: 1 GP/GS, 2 gb, 2 ct
Jack Zerrillo: 1 GP/GS, 1g, 1a
Jared Hershman: 1 GP, 7-of-17 face-offs, 2 gb

RICHARD AND WAGNER ARE SENIOR CLASS AWARD CANDIDATES

Noah Richard and John Wagner are among thirty of the top NCAA Division I men's lacrosse student-athletes selected as candidates for the 2019 Senior CLASS Award^®, highlighting excellence both on and off the field. To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition.
The pair joins B.J. Grill (2016) and Andy DeMichiei (2017) as Marquette men's lacrosse players to earn the recognition. Grill went on to earn Senior CLASS Award Senior All-American First Team honors in 2016 as one of five players named to the squad.
The 30 candidates will be narrowed to 10 finalists later in the season, and those 10 names will be placed on the official ballot. Ballots will be distributed through a nationwide voting system to media, coaches and fans, who will select one candidate who best exemplifies excellence in the four Cs of community, classroom, character and competition.

NEW LACROSSE BUILDING OPENED MARCH 5

The new home of Marquette lacrosse, the Athletic and Human Performance Research Center on N. 12th and W. Wells streets officially opened on March 5. The $24 million, 46,000-square-foot AHPRC will be built in phases under a long-term master plan. The first phase will include:
- Space for faculty researchers who work in a wide variety of academic fields.
- Locker rooms and support space for the lacrosse programs and golf team.
- Additional strength and conditioning spaces for the athletic department and a centralized core of laboratories for conducting human performance research.

NOAH RICHARD DRAFTED IN MLL; JACOB RICHARD AND B.J. GRILL LEARN PLL TEAMS

Noah Richard became the second-highest drafted MU player in program history when the Chesapeake Bayhawks selected him in the MLL Draft on March 9 at 25th overall (third round). Richard is one of six MU players who has heard his name called in the MLL Collegiate Draft, joining his brother Jacob, who went 35th overall to the New York Lizards in 2016. Currently, Liam Byrnes (Atlanta Blaze), Ryan McNamara (Dallas Rattlers), Conor Gately (Dallas Rattlers), Zachary Melillo (Denver Outlaws) and Cole Blazer (Chesapeake Bayhawks) enter the 2019 season on MLL rosters.
On Monday, March 4 the Premier Lacrosse League officially unveiled its rosters for the 2019 season and the Major League Lacrosse Collegiate Draft is slated for Saturday, March 9 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Marquette's Jacob Richard (Atlas LC) and B.J. Grill (Chrome LC) learned their PLL team assignments on Monday, as did volunteer assistant coach Tim Rotanz (Whipsnakes LC).

MU OFFENSE SHARING THE LOAD

Marquette has displayed depth on the offensive end as 17 players have found the back of the net, and three others recording assists. John Wagner and Tanner Thomson each have a team-high 16 points, but it has been the production of Marquette's defensive midfield that has been impressive early on. LSM Noah Richard (4g, 3a) along with defensive midfielders Luke Anderson (4g, 3a), Logan Kreinz (2g) and Nick Singleton (1a) have provided offensive contributions. Senior defensemen Jackson Ehlert (1g, 1a) also recorded the first points of his career in the season opener against Bellarmine.

RICHARD THE BIG EAST'S TOP LSM

Senior Noah Richard was selected unanimously as the BIG EAST's top long-stick midfielder in 2018 and earned unanimous recognition on this year's All-BIG EAST Preseason Team. Richard tied for the team lead with 48 ground balls, marking the highest ground ball total in the BIG EAST for non-faceoff specialists. He averaged 5.7 ground balls per contest in the six games after returning from an early season injury last year, an absence in the lineup that coincided with a three-game losing skid for MU. Richard sits fifth in program history in career ground balls and sixth in caused turnovers.
Richard earned his first career BIG EAST Midfielder of the Week honor on Feb. 11 following MU's season opening win over Bellarmine. He scored and posted an assist against the Knights, while also picking up a ground ball.

TANNER THOMSON RETURNS FROM REDSHIRT

Fifth-year senior Tanner Thomson sat out the 2018 campaign after turning in an All-BIG EAST Second Team year in 2017 as a true junior. Thomson was MU's returning scoring leader entering last season with 39 goals and 55 points in 38 career games. He tallied 20 goals and added 14 assists as a junior in 2017 and was an All-BIG EAST Championship Team selection in 2016. Thomson is also a top prospect for the National Lacrosse League.
Thomson became the sixth Marquette player to reach 50 career goals with four markers at Robert Morris on March 12, while tying a career best with six points. He joined Ryan McNamara (102), Conor Gately (77), Kyle Whitlow (70), John Wagner (61) and Tyler Melnyk (59) among MU's 50-goal scorers.

'ROMO' RETURNS TO MARQUETTE

After redshirting his freshman season at MU in 2015 before spending the last three years at Delaware, midfielder Andrew Romagnoli rejoined the Golden Eagles this past summer as a graduate transfer. Romagnoli posted 91 points on 60 goals and 31 assists in 34 career games with the Blue Hens in just over two seasons of competition. He scored 21 goals as a redshirt freshman in 2016 and set a single-game career-high with six goals against VMI while earning CAA All-Freshman Team honors. Romagnoli followed that up with a 34-goal, 53-point campaign in 2017 and posted seven points in five games as a redshirt junior last season. The 5-foot-11 attackman finished the 2017 season second in the CAA with 3.53 points per game and recorded seven hat tricks that year.
Four and a half years after first stepping foot on the MU campus, Romagnoli scored his first goal in a Marquette uniform in the season opener against Bellarmine. His goal was the first of the game for the Golden Eagles, who went on to a 15-9 victory.
He also posted four points (2 goals, 2 assists) at Jacksonville and earned BIG EAST Midfielder of the Week recognition on Feb. 18 for his play. He also scored four goals in the 17-15 win at Robert Morris on March 12.

FOGO AND GOAL QUESTIONS

Marquette entered the 2019 season with a couple of glaring holes due to graduation losses of three-year starters and All-BIG EAST performers in goalie Cole Blazer and face-off specialists Zachary Melillo. The Golden Eagles are working their way to a solution at both spots as the season progresses:
- Every MU goalie played in the season opener, but sophomore John Hulsman started and played 37 minutes in net. Hulsman, who finished 2018 fourth in NCAA Division I in save percentage at Bellarmine, made six saves and allowed five goals.
- Junior Chris Rolfing made his first career start against Cleveland State and recorded nine first half saves. He also started at Robert Morris.
- Jared Hershman started at the face-off dot against Bellarmine for MU and won 11-of-16 draws. Freshman Thomas Washington made his NCAA debut against BU and won all but one faceoff he took (8-of-9).
- Freshman Jack Devine took 22 face-offs at Robert Morris on March 12 and won 10 of them. The offensive midfielder starting practicing with MU's face-off unit in early March.