MLAX heads to No. 7/6 Cornell for Tuesday matinee

Game Notes (PDF)

MILWAUKEE – The Marquette University men's lacrosse team heads to Ithaca, New York for a Tuesday afternoon meeting with No. 7/6 Cornell at Schoellkopf Field.

Faceoff is slated for 11 a.m. Central time and the contest airs live on ESPN+. Live statistics are also available through GoMarquette.com, courtesy of Cornell Athletics.

Following Tuesday's matchup against Cornell, the Golden Eagles return to Milwaukee to host No. 9/10 Georgetown on Saturday afternoon. MU closes the month of April with games at No. 13 Villanova and on Friday, April 28 against No. 11/12 Denver on Senior Night in Milwaukee.

MARQUETTE (6-4, 1-1 BIG EAST): The Golden Eagles rebounded from an April 1 loss to Providence at the start of BIG EAST Conference action with a 20-10 win over St. John's on Saturday afternoon. Marquette's 20 goals are its second-highest total in program history, topped only by the 23 it put up last season at SJU. Attackman Bobby O'Grady led MU with a game-high four goals, while freshman Charlie Reynolds scored his first career goal and hat trick against the Red Storm. Additionally, MU senior Devon Cowan became the fourth player in Marquette history to reach 100 career points with two goals on Saturday.

Marquette owns victories this season over a pair of teams currently ranked No. 5 (Penn State) and No. 16/15 (Michigan) as well as wins over the St. John's, St. Bonaventure, Lindenwood and Detroit Mercy.

Senior attackman Jake Stegman (13 goals, 20 assists) shares the team point lead with O'Grady at 33, while O'Grady has scored 28 times this season and is up to fifth in program history with 73 goals in his career.

CORNELL (7-2, 3-1 IVY): The Big Red dropped a 10-8 decision at Harvard on Saturday afternoon following three consecutive wins to start Ivy League play against then-No. 8 Yale, then-No. 16/15 Penn and Dartmouth. Cornell fell 10-6 to then-No. 8 Penn State on March 11, the week before MU knocked off the Nittany Lions on Long Island. The Big Red began the season with wins over Albany, Lehigh, Hobart and then-No. 9/8 Ohio State.

Junior attackman CJ Kirst leads NCAA Division I with 43 goals through nine games for an average of 4.78 goals per contest. His 5.78 points per game is also first nationally, while goalie Chayse Ierlan is fourth in the nation with a .576 save percentage.
The Big Red have outscored its opponents 131-89 this year and has won at a .522 clip at the faceoff dot, paced by freshman Jack Cascadden at a mark of .598 (58-of-97).

Cornell head coach Connor Buczek was a teammate of MU assistant coach Jacob Richard on Atlas Lacrosse Club during the inaugural season of the Premier Lacrosse League in 2019.

HISTORY WITH THE BIG RED: Tuesday's game is MU's first against a member of the Ivy League.

OFFENSIVE DEPTH ON DISPLAY AGAINST ST. JOHN'S
The Golden Eagles scored a season-high 20 goals in the April 8 win over St. John's and multiple players scored their first goals of the season. Sophomore Nolan Garcia and junior Justin Mintzer each scored in the fourth quarter, while freshman Charlie Reynolds posted his first career goal with six seconds remaining in the third. Reynolds added two more scores in the fourth period for his first career hat trick. In addition to those three individuals, redshirt freshman Conor McCabe scored his second goal of the year with five minutes left in regulation and graduate student Holden Patterson added a pair of goals in the final 50 seconds.

VETERAN ATTACKMEN ARE KEY FOR MU
Seniors Devon Cowan and Jake Stegman have proven their importance to Marquette this season and have each reached significant career milestones in recent weeks.

Stegman was averaging two assists per game as Marquette's X-attackman but has played out of the box since the win over Penn State. He is third in Marquette history with 45 career assists, behind only Conor Gately (63) and Ryan McNamara (50). Stegman has 20 assists this season, tied with Gately's freshman campaign in 2013 for the highest single-season total in program history.

Cowan is second on MU with 15 goals despite playing just seven contests so far due to injury. He was slowly worked into action against Michigan and scored a late goal in the victory. He notched hat tricks in the three games that followed and became the fourth player in Marquette history to reach 100 career points with two goals against St. John's on April 8.

WOODWARD IS ELITE
Close defenseman Mason Woodward was named to the Tewaaraton Award Watch List on Feb. 10 as the program's second two-time USILA All-American (Ryan McNamara earned honors in both 2016 and 2017). He follows McNamara (2017) and Conor Gately (2015, 2016) as MU players to earn recognition.

Woodward led the Golden Eagles in caused turnovers in each of his first three seasons and is the program's all-time leader in ground balls per game (4.59 per contest entering 2023). He was the BIG EAST's leader in ground balls among non-faceoff specialists in each of the last two seasons and is the third player in MU history with over 100 career ground balls and 50 caused turnovers (Liam Byrnes and B.J. Grill are the others).

Woodward posted a career-high 12 ground balls at Utah on Feb. 11 and through 10 games is the NCAA leader in ground balls per game (5.40) among non-faceoff specialists. Overall, he's 32rd nationally in ground balls per game and, in total, has posted six points (four goals, two assist), 54 ground balls and forced 14 turnovers.

In the BIG EAST opener at PC, Woodward moved past Zachary Melillo (190 GB; 2016-18) and assistant coach Jacob Richard (193 GB; 2013-16) for second in MU history in career ground balls (he now has 196). Marquette all-time ground ball leader Liam Byrnes (218) is still 22 ground balls ahead of Woodward.

O'GRADY VAULTS UP MU RECORD BOOK
Bobby O'Grady turned in a record-setting season as a true freshman in 2022, setting new program records for goals (45) and man-up scores (13). He also recorded just the fourth 50-point season at Marquette and tied a BIG EAST record with eight goals at St. John's on April 9, 2022.

His 3.00 goals per game in 2022 was a MU single-season record and currently through just 25 games of his NCAA career he's fifth in program history in career goals (73) and the all-time leader in man-up scores (17).

O'Grady was named the BIG EAST Attack Player of the Week for his play in MU's opener against Lindenwood after posting his third career game with at least six goals and seven points. He's also earned weekly honor roll mention four times for his play against Utah, Notre Dame, St. Bonaventure and St. John's.

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