MLAX hosts St. John's on Saturday morning

Game Notes (PDF)

MILWAUKEE – The Marquette University men's lacrosse team hosts its BIG EAST Conference home opener on Saturday against St. John's at Valley Fields.

First faceoff is slated for 11 a.m. Central time inside the dome and the game will air live on FloSports with Scott Sudikoff (play-by-play) and Eric Simon on the call. Live statistics will be available through GoMarquette.com.

Fans interested in purchasing the extremely limited tickets that remain can purchase online or contact the Marquette Ticket Office at 414-288-GOMU (4668).

Marquette has a short turnaround after Saturday's game and will make the trek to Ithaca, New York to face No. 4 Cornell on Tuesday, April 11.

MARQUETTE (5-4, 0-1 BIG EAST): The Golden Eagles kicked off BIG EAST play with a 16-14 loss at Providence on April 1 and now have three of their remaining four conference games at home, beginning with the matchup against the Red Storm. Marquette owns victories this season over a pair of teams currently ranked No. 8 (Penn State) and No. 18 (Michigan) as well as wins over St. Bonaventure, Lindenwood and Detroit Mercy.

Senior attackman Jake Stegman leads the Golden Eagles with 31 points on 11 goals and 20 assists after registering a career-high five helpers at Providence. That assist mark against the Friars tied the MU single-game record and pushed him into a tie for the MU single-season record of 20 assists set by Conor Gately in 2013. Sophomore Bobby O'Grady is Marquette's leading scorer with 24 goals, while Devon Cowan and Luke Blanc have 13 and 11 goals, respectively. Cowan sits just two points shy of becoming only the fourth player in Marquette history to reach 100 career points.

In addition to Tuesday's upcoming game at No. 4 Cornell, MU closes the month of April against No. 10 Georgetown, No. 9 Villanova and No. 17 Denver.

ST. JOHN'S (0-10, 0-1 BIG EAST): The Red Storm are led by attackman Brian Kelly's 34 points on 18 goals and 16 assists, while Gavin Legg leads the defense with 14 caused turnovers. In net, Kyle Munson is second in the BIG EAST in saves per game averaging 13.11 in the nine games he has started.

St. John's began its 2023 campaign with a close 9-5 loss to Manhattan University on Feb. 11. They have also competed against multiple current USILA ranked teams in Rutgers, Delaware, Jacksonville, and Villanova.

SJU sits second in the BIG EAST, averaging 14.40 saves per game, while Marquette has averaged 39.78 shots per contest. The Red Storm ranks last in the league in both goals per game (8.70) and in turnovers per game (19.30).

St. John's is led by first-year head coach Justin Turri, a former assistant at the University of Michigan.

HISTORY WITH THE RED STORM: Marquette holds a 9-1 mark all-time against St John's, with a record of 4-0 at home for the Golden Eagles. This will be the first time these teams will be facing off indoors at Valley Fields.

The last meeting between both sides ended in road victory for Marquette, 23-13, on April 9, 2022. MU set multiple program records, including marks for goals in a game (23), assists (14), points (37), shots (58), shots on goal (36), and faceoff wins (28).
Bobby O'Grady set the MU record for goals in a game and tied the single-game points record with an eight-goal performance (that goal mark tied Kieran McArdle's BIG EAST single-game record). Michael Allieri led the team with 11 saves and Luke Williams recorded career highs with 16 ground balls and 21 faceoff wins.

The last time these two met in Milwaukee, Marquette escaped with a narrow 9-8 overtime victory on April 14, 2021. Devon Cowan led the team with four points, while Mason Woodward picked up five ground balls and forced a turnover.

OFFENSIVE UNIT STARTING TO SEE STABILITY
Outside of leading scorers Bobby O'Grady and Jake Stegman, Marquette's offensive unit was in a state of flux over the season's first seven contests. Fellow attackman Devon Cowan reentered the lineup alongside the pair, while the first midfield has rotated due to injuries.

With the return of Cowan and redshirt freshman Nolan Rappis on attack, MU has settled into a first midfield unit featuring Stegman, Will Foster and Luke Blanc.

Cowan played his first game this season against Michigan on Feb. 25 and posted hat tricks in three-straight games against Detroit Mercy, Bellarmine and Penn State. Rappis, who missed most of last season after suffering a season-ending knee injury on March 5, made his season debut this year at Detroit Mercy on March 2 and scored his first goal since last year against Bellarmine on March 11.

Of the nine players to start in the midfield for the Golden Eagles this season, six have missed games due to injury, including three games each for Andrew Bowman – who had a hat trick against Penn State – and Foster, MU's assist leader last season.

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 nine games is the NCAA leader in ground balls per game (5.78) among non-faceoff specialists. Overall, he's 32rd nationally in ground balls per game and, in total, has posted five points (four goals, one assist), 52 ground balls and forced 12 turnovers.

In Saturday's game 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 with 194 career ground balls. Marquette all-time ground ball leader Liam Byrnes is still 24 ground balls ahead of Woodward.

VETERAN ATTACKMEN ARE KEY FOR MU
Senior attackmen Devon Cowan and Jake Stegman have proven their importance to Marquette in recent weeks and rank in the top-three of MU's point producers this season.

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. Stegman is third in Marquette history with 45 career assists, behind only Conor Gately (63) and Ryan McNamara (50).

Cowan is second on MU with 13 goals despite playing just six 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 is just two points from becoming the fourth Marquette player to reach 100 in his career.

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 24 games of his NCAA career he's sixth in program history in career goals (69) 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 for his play against Utah, Notre Dame and St. Bonaventure.

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 MU's leader in faceoff percentage at .641 (41-of-64) after a 15-of-25 performance with 10 ground balls against Providence.

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