Lacrosse welcomes Cleveland State on Saturday

MILWAUKEE – The Marquette University men's lacrosse team welcomes Cleveland State to Milwaukee for a noon Central time contest at Valley Fields on Saturday, March 9.

The game will air live on GoMarquette.com/watch with Patrick Reed on the call and live statistics will also be available.

Tickets are available through the Ticket Office, online or at the venue on game day for $5, though seating in the dome is extremely limited.

GAME DETAILS
Marquette (2-2) vs. Cleveland State (2-4)
Valley Fields (Milwaukee)
Saturday, March 9 at noon CT
TICKETS

LIVE COVERAGE
VIDEO | STATS | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM

MARQUETTE (2-2): The Golden Eagles have dropped consecutive games after starting the season 2-0. Marquette fell to then-No. 9 Ohio State, 13-9, on Saturday afternoon in the Patriot Cup in Dallas, Texas, after going down 4-1 early in the second quarter. MU rallied to pull within two goals on seven occasions but could get no closer as Jackson Reid scored a game-high give goals for the Buckeyes. Attackmen Tanner Thomson and John Wagner each posted three points on the day for Marquette, while senior long-stick midfielder Noah Richard scored a goal, picked up four ground balls and won six face-offs while being forced into duty at the dot. Wagner leads Marquette with 11 points (five goals, six assists) on the season, with Thomson not far behind with 10 (7 goals, 3 assists).

CLEVELAND STATE (2-4): The Vikings have already played six games this year after starting the regular season with a 12-9 loss at Ohio State on February. They followed that up with a 10-8 defeat at the hands of Michigan before picking up their first win of the year, 17-8, over Bellarmine on Saturday, Feb. 16. In addition to OSU and U of M, CSU has also faced Marquette's BIG EAST rival Denver (L, 16-8) on Feb. 24. Sophomore Michael Wilson leads the Vikings with 19 points (8 goals, 11 assists), while classmate Tristan Hanna has a team-high 13 goals. Cleveland State is in its third season as an NCAA Division I program, and all its top-seven scorers are either freshmen or sophomores.

KEY STORYLINES:

Saturday marks the first regular season meeting between the two programs.
The two squads met in a preseason scrimmage last season on Jan. 27 in Cleveland.
MU needs a victory to avoid its worst five-game start to the season since 2014 (1-4) .
Defenseman Brendon Connolly and face-off specialist Thomas Washington are each vital parts of the MU rotation and have each missed two games due to injury.
Fourteen players have scored a goal for Marquette through three games and seven have at least six points.
The Marquette program and head coach Joe Amplo are closing in on 50 victories all-time. The Golden Eagles are 48-47 in their seventh season.

SERIES HISTORY: First Meeting

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.

WEEK OFFERS LOOK AT PROFESSIONAL FUTURES

On Monday morning 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).
Marquette's large senior class also has several athletes who may hear their name called in the MLL Draft on Saturday evening. Among those are All-BIG EAST honorees John Wagner, Noah Richard and Tanner Thomson, along with Brendon Connolly, Andrew Romagnoli and Jackson Ehlert.
MU has had a total of five players selected in the MLL Collegiate Draft, but none last season. 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.