MLAX hosts No. 11/10 Denver on Friday for Senior Night

Game Notes (PDF)

MILWAUKEE – The Marquette University men's lacrosse team hosts No. 11/10 Denver on Friday evening in its final regular season game at Valley Fields.

The Golden Eagles will honor 12 departing seniors during a pregame ceremony, including graduate students Zach Granger, Logan Kreinz, Holden Patterson and Jackson Rose, alongside seniors Nate Surd, Cole Emmanuel, Kelan Duff, Max Christides, Chris Kirschner, Devon Cowan, Jake Stegman and Luke Williams. Senior midfielder Griffin Fries will also be recognized, though he will return to utilize his fifth year of eligibility in 2023-24.

The game is slated for 6 p.m. Central time and airs live on FloSports with Scott Sudikoff (play-by-play) and Eric Simon on the call. Live statistics are available through GoMarquette.com.

The contest will be played at the stadium at Valley Fields, the first time the Golden Eagles have played on the natural grass surface since an April 14, 2021 victory over St. John's. Marquette is slated to host the semifinals and final of the 2023 BIG EAST Men's Lacrosse Championship presented by JEEP, at the stadium on May 4-6.

MARQUETTE (6-7, 1-3 BIG EAST): The Golden Eagles have dropped consecutive overtime games to then-No. 9/10 Georgetown and then-No. 12/13 Villanova in the last two weeks and sit at 1-3 in BIG EAST Conference action. Through four BIG EAST games, the Golden Eagles lead the conference with 15.75 goals per contest and rank among the league's top-three teams in most other statistical categories. They are tied with Providence for fourth in the conference standings, though PC owns the head-to-head tiebreaker.

Devon Cowan scored the tying and go-ahead goals midway through the fourth quarter of Saturday's loss at Villanova and tied Bobby O'Grady for the team lead with four goals. Cowan jumped into third place in the Marquette record book with 112 career points and his 85 career goals trails only Ryan McNamara's 102 in program history.

O'Grady paces the Golden Eagles with 37 goals this season, while senior Jake Stegman has a team-high 45 points on 16 goals and a program-record 29 assists.

With three more goals against Denver on Saturday, O'Grady would become the only player in program history with two 40-goal seasons – he had a program-record 45 as a freshman last year. Stegman needs five points to become just the fifth MU player to reach 50 points in a single season.

Marquette owns victories this season over a pair of teams currently ranked in the USILA Top-20 (Penn State and Michigan) as well as wins over St. John's, St. Bonaventure, Lindenwood and Detroit Mercy.

DENVER (8-4, 3-1 BIG EAST): Friday's game marks the final regular season contest for legendary head coach Bill Tierney, who led the Pios to the 2015 NCAA Championship and captured six national titles during his time at Princeton. The 2023 campaign is Tierney's 42nd season as a college coach.

The Pioneers own league wins over Villanova, St. John's and Providence and a lone blemish at Georgetown, 13-6, on April 1 to start of BIG EAST play. Denver also defeated Utah, North Carolina, Towson and Ohio State in non-conference action and lost close games at Yale and Air Force along with an overtime loss at Duke.

DU allows a league-low 9.58 goals per game and faces off at a .601 clip, paced by Alex Stathakis who has taken every draw this year.

JJ Sillstrop leads Denver with 29 goals this season, while a trio of Pios – Michael Lampert, Richie Connell and Noah Manning – each have at least 14 assists.

HISTORY WITH THE PIONEERS: Denver leads the all-time series with Marquette, 11-2, and has been victorious in all 11 regular season meetings, including a mark of 4-0 in Milwaukee.

The two have met three previous times at Valley Fields, both one-goal victories for the Pioneers (a 9-8 win in 2019 and a 10-9 win in 2021). The Golden Eagles and Pioneers played on the natural grass at the Valley Fields stadium in both 2017 and 2021.

Marquette's two victories in the series both came in the BIG EAST tournament. The Golden Eagles snapped a 22-game home winning streak for the top-ranked Pioneers in the 2016 BIG EAST title game and topped then-No. 2 Denver the following year in the league semifinals.

Denver won last year's matchup, 16-8, at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium in Denver.

MU TO HOST 2023 BIG EAST CHAMPIONSHIP
The Golden Eagles will host the 2023 BIG EAST Conference Men's Lacrosse Championship presented by JEEP on Thursday, May 4 and Saturday, May 6 at Valley Fields.

Only the top-four teams in the league regular season standings qualify for the event and Georgetown, Denver and Villanova have already secured semifinal berths.

The Golden Eagles or Providence will claim the final spot this weekend. Thanks to a PC win over MU to begin BIG EAST play on April 1, Marquette needs a win over Denver on Friday combined with a PC loss to St. John's on Saturday to secure an appearance for the second-straight year.

MU will not be officially eliminated on Friday night even with a loss, however, as a St. John's win over PC by five-or-more goals would give MU the goal differential tie-breaker in a three-team mini conference featuring MU, PC and SJU at 1-4.

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.

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 second in Marquette history with 54 career assists, behind only Conor Gately (63). Stegman has 29 assists this season, surpassing Gately's freshman campaign total of 20 in 2013 for the highest single-season mark in program history.

Cowan is second on MU with 25 goals despite playing 10 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. He currently has 85 career goals, second to only Ryan McNamara's 102 in MU history.

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 12 games is first in NCAA Division I in ground balls per game (5.15) among close defensemen. Overall, he's 36th nationally in ground balls per game and, in total, has posted a career-high seven points (five goals, two assists), 67 ground balls and forced 14 turnovers this season.

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 209). Marquette all-time ground ball leader Liam Byrnes (218) is just nine 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 28 games of his NCAA career he's third in program history in career goals (82) and the all-time leader in man-up scores (19).

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.

IRON DISTRICT MKE, THE FUTURE HOME OF MU LAX
Iron District MKE, the new home stadium for men's and women's soccer and lacrosse sits on an 11-acre parcel of land that Marquette University sold in spring 2022 to Bear Development who, together with Kacmarcik Enterprises, is developing the area into a vibrant sports and entertainment district.

The development, bordered by N. 6th Street to the east, N. 10th Street to the west, and W. Michigan Street to the north, is centered around an 8,000-seat stadium, includes a 3,500-capacity indoor concert venue operated by the Pabst Theater Group, will have a 140-unit residential component, boutique hotel, in addition to dining, nightlife and retail operations.

Construction has begun on the development and the Golden Eagles expect to begin competing at the venue by the 2025 campaign.

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