MLAX welcomes No. 9/10 Georgetown to Valley Fields

Game Notes (PDF)

MILWAUKEE – The Marquette University men's lacrosse team resumes BIG EAST Conference action on Saturday against No. 9/10 Georgetown at Valley Fields.

Faceoff is slated for 2:30 p.m. Central time and the contest will air live on the BIG EAST Digital Network through FloSports with Scott Sudikoff on the call. Live statistics are also available through GoMarquette.com.

The event will be played inside the seasonal dome and tickets are sold out.

MU closes the month of April with games at No. 13 Villanova on April 22 and on Friday, April 28 against No. 11/12 Denver in Milwaukee for Senior Night.

MARQUETTE (6-5, 1-1 BIG EAST): The Golden Eagles are 1-1 in conference play after Saturday's 20-10 win over St. John's at Valley Fields. Marquette dropped its league opener to Providence on April 1 and fell 21-11 at No. 7/6 Cornell in its last game on Tuesday afternoon. Attackman Bobby O'Grady led MU with four goals against the Red Storm and had his seventh hat trick of the year against the Big Red.

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, 23 assists) shares the team point lead with O'Grady at 36, while O'Grady has scored 31 times this season and is up to fifth in program history with 76 goals in his career. A pair of Golden Eagles also reached significant statistical milestones in the last week with Devon Cowan posting the 100th point of his career against SJU and defenseman Mason Woodward reaching the 200 ground ball threshold at Cornell.

GEORGETOWN (6-3, 2-0 BIG EAST): The Hoyas concluded a five-game homestand on Saturday at Cooper Field with a 13-11 victory over Providence and have won six in a row after a 15-8 loss to then-No. 2 Notre Dame on Feb. 25. Georgetown opened the season with losses at Johns Hopkins and then-No. 11/10 Penn before the defeat at the hands of the Irish.

Graduate attackman Tucker Dordevic leads GU with 28 goals and 34 points this year after transferring from Syracuse during the offseason. Brian Minicus and Graham Bundy Jr., each have scored 17 times and the Hoyas are averaging 13.11 goals per game this season.

Georgetown averages a BIG EAST-best 28.11 shots on goal per game and is second in the country in ground balls per game, picking up 41.00 per contest. Faceoff specialist James Reilly boasts a .568 winning percentage at the dot and leads the conference with 90 ground balls in nine games played. Defenseman Will Bowen also ranks among the nation's leaders in caused turnovers with 2.22 per contest, fifth nationally.

The Hoyas are led by two-time reigning BIG EAST Conference Coach of the Year Kevin Warne.

HISTORY WITH THE HOYAS: Georgetown leads the all-time series 7-5 and has won each of the last four meetings, including two games last season. GU ended MU's 2022 campaign with a 15-5 victory in the semifinals of the BIG EAST tournament in Washington, D.C. The Golden Eagles also fell 20-10 at then-No. 2 Georgetown on April 16 last year with goalie Michael Allieri posting a program-record 26 saves and Bobby O'Grady scoring five goals.

Marquette is 3-2 against the Hoyas at home, though only one of those games, a 9-8 overtime win in 2018, was played inside the seasonal dome at Valley Fields. Georgetown has entered each of the last six meetings ranked.

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 48 career assists, behind only Conor Gately (63) and Ryan McNamara (50). Stegman has 23 assists this season, surpassing Gately's freshman campaign total of 20 in 2013 for the highest single-season total in program history.

Cowan is second on MU with 17 goals despite playing just eight 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 11 games is second in NCAA Division I in ground balls per game (5.45) among non-faceoff specialists. Overall, he's 33rd nationally in ground balls per game and, in total, has posted seven points (five goals, two assists), 60 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 202). Marquette all-time ground ball leader Liam Byrnes (218) is still 16 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 26 games of his NCAA career he's fifth in program history in career goals (76) 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.

DEEP AT THE DOT
The Golden Eagles boast a deep group of faceoff specialists led by All-BIG EAST Second Teamer Luke Williams, who posted a .568 percentage last season, grabbed a team-leading 69 ground balls, and contributed to MU's early offense with a career-high seven points on four goals and three assists. He was even more efficient in BIG EAST play, winning at a .617 clip with 35 ground balls and a pair of goals in five games.

Fellow senior Cole Emmanuel had the highest face-off percentage on the team (.594) in 2022 by winning 38 of his 56 draws. The transfer from Colorado Mesa had his best game to end the year in MU's BIG EAST semifinal loss to No. 2 Georgetown and USILA All-American James Reilly. Emmanuel won 14-of-21 (.667) faceoffs, while picking up nine ground balls and scoring one of MU's five goals.

Graduate student Grant Evans also joins the squad from Division III Grove City College, where Stimmel was the MCLA Division II Coach of the Year in 2013. Evans was a two-time USILA Third Team All-American and the NCAA statistical champion in faceoff percentage in 2019. He ended his career at Grove City with a .762 winning percentage and 70 points but faces stiff competition for playing time with Williams and Emmanuel.

Evans and Williams combined to go 19-of-27 (.704) in Marquette's victory over then-No. 5 Penn State on March 18. Evans saw his first extended action of the season against Bellarmine on March 11 and currently sits as the MU and BIG EAST leader in faceoff percentage at .644 (47-of-73).

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