Lacrosse falls 13-12 at Michigan

ANN ARBOR, Michigan - The Marquette University men's lacrosse team's last-ditch effort fell short in a 13-12 loss to Michigan on Wednesday afternoon at U-M Lacrosse Stadium.

Ryan Fazio's last second shot was saved at the near post as the Golden Eagles (3-4) dropped their third-straight contest.

"I was very excited overall with our fight coming back from being 25 percent at the face-off X," Marquette head coach Andrew Stimmel said. "I think it says a lot about our team on offense and defense and our ability to fight and scrap in the middle of the field. It's exactly what we are asking the guys to do. We can only control that situation so much. Certainly hats off to them and how good of a job they did there."

Freshman Devon Cowan posted a team-best five points on two goals and three assists, while Fazio, Chris Kirschner and Griffin Fries each scored twice.

Alex Buckanavage became the fifth player in Michigan (4-3) history to reach 100 career points with a game-high seven points on four goals and three assists.

Marquette opened up an early 2-0 lead with goals from Fries and Kirschner before six-straights scores from the Wolverines to end the opening quarter. Marquette inched closer with a one-goal advantage in both the second and third quarters before pulling even, 11-11, on Kirschner's second goal with 7:28 to play.

Kirschner's score ended a 3-0 run by the Golden Eagles, which included the first career goal for freshman defenseman Mason Woodward, who posted a pair of ground balls and three caused turnovers.

"I really felt like especially in the second half we came out and made stops defensively, which is what we wanted to do, and played with pace on offense," Stimmel said "We were just taking it one possession at a time on 'O' and it wasn't necessarily about us trying to score a ton of goals it once. We knew it was just one goal at a time and I thought we showed a lot of maturity on the offensive end, especially with a young team to buy into that process. We felt like if we kept chipping away that we'd get back in the game and we did. We had a chance to tie it there at the end and they made a great play to come out on top."

After a U-M go-ahead goal, Holden Patterson re-tied the game with 4:08 remaining, but Michigan responded with a goal from Rocco Sutherland less than a minute later after controlling the face-off and calling timeout.

Five different players took face-offs for Marquette, which lost 22-of-29 on the day. Jared Hershman set program records for MU in last season's game against U-M with 22 face-off wins and 21 ground balls.

The Golden Eagles are off this weekend and will open BIG EAST Conference play on Saturday, March 21 against No. 9 Georgetown at Valley Fields.

Keep up with the Marquette men's lacrosse program through social media by following on Twitter (@MarquetteMLax) and Instagram (@MarquetteMLax) and 'liking' on Facebook (/MarquetteMLax).