WLAX Takes Down Oregon in Home Opener

MILWAUKEE - The Marquette women's lacrosse team defeated Oregon 16-4 in its home opener on Friday night at Valley Fields.

"I'm really proud of our effort tonight," Marquette Head Coach Meredith Black said. "We brought the energy on both ends of the field and controlled the momentum throughout the game. It was great to see our team put together a balanced effort and come away with the win."

Redshirt senior Megan Menzuber scored three of her game-high five goals in the first half to lead the Golden Eagles (1-2, 0-0 BIG EAST) to a decisive victory to open up their home slate at Valley Fields. With her five goals, Menzuber moves up to No. 5 all-time at MU in career points (139). Shea Garcia, Hannah Greving and Mary Schumar tallied two goals apiece while five other Golden Eagles scored one goal.

After three scoreless minutes of play to start the game, MU struck first with a goal from redshirt freshman Leigh Steiner off a feed from Lydia Foust. Just over a minute later, Menzuber netted her first of the game to put MU up 2-0. After a response from Oregon (0-3, 0-0 Pac-12), MU went on a 6-1 scoring run to end the half, with Hannah Greving scoring two goals and Lydia Foust and Lindsey Hill tallying one apiece.

The Golden Eagles picked up where they left off to start the final 30 minutes, scoring the first four goals of the second half to break the game open. Shea Garcia and Mary Schumar scored both of their goals in the second half while Caoline Steller had one and Madison Kane got on the board for the first time this season.

MU went up 13-3 with 12:21 remaining and the clock stayed running for the rest of the game.

Tonight was the Golden Eagles best defensive performance of the year as they forced 20 Ducks turnovers and allowed them just 17 shots on the evening. MU had a season-high 40 shots with 30 of them coming on net. Senior goalie Sophia Leva played 50 minutes in net and tallied six saves (.667 save percentage) to anchor the MU back line. Senior defender Jocelyn Miller tied a career-high with three caused turnovers to help lead a strong defensive effort for MU.

Hannah Hilcoff scored all four goals for Oregon.

UP NEXT:
Marquette is scheduled to play at Kent State at 11 a.m. Central time on Sunday, Feb. 28.

Keep up with the Marquette women's lacrosse program all season long through social media by following on Twitter (@MarquetteWLax) and Instagram (@MarquetteWLax) and `liking' on Facebook (/MarquetteWLax).