MLAX hosts No. 1 Notre Dame on Sunday at Valley Fields

Game Notes (PDF) | Watch Live (YouTube)

MILWAUKEE – The Marquette University men's lacrosse team hosts the nation's top ranked team for the first time in program history in No. 1 Notre Dame on Sunday.

Opening faceoff is slated for 1 p.m. Central time in the seasonal dome at Valley Fields and the contest airs live on the Marquette Athletics YouTube channel with play-by-play announcer Matt Menzl and analyst Eric Simon on the call. Live statistics are available through GoMarquette.com.

Tickets are not available to the general public, but Marquette students will have the opportunity to claim tickets through the Marquette Gameday app. Student attendance is limited to just 200 individuals in addition to the MU and ND pass lists, and the first 50 students at Sunday's game will receive a Marquette Iggy winter hat.

New this spring, Marquette Athletics is enforcing a clear bag policy at its athletic venues. Clutch purses, totes and belt bags are permissible, as are bags deemed medically necessary after inspection at the entrance. A further explanation of the policy can be found here.

MARQUETTE (3-0, 0-0 BIG EAST)

The Golden Eagles are 3-0 following season opening wins at Air Force and against Lindenwood and Detroit Mercy at Valley Fields.
MU's veteran core has reached numerous statistical milestones through the first three games of this season, including a new program ground ball record for defenseman Mason Woodward (221), the 100-point threshold for Bobby O'Grady (110) and Jake Stegman (101), and the career assist record for Stegman (66).
Stegman also set the MU single-game record for assists with six in Tuesday's win over Detroit Mercy, while freshman attackman Carsen Brandt's 10 points in his first three career games are a new MU record.
Brandt is a two-time BIG EAST Freshman of the Week and the league's reigning offensive player of the Week.
Woodward was named to the Tewaaraton Award Watch List on Wednesday after earning USILA Team of the Week and BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll recognition prior to MU's game against UDM.
Junior attackman Bobby O'Grady is currently second in program history with 97 career goals and fifth in points with 110. He'll join all-time scoring leader Ryan McNamara (102) as the only players in MU history to reach 100 career goals.
Devon Cowan, who missed Tuesday's game against the Titans, is third in both points (120) and goals (91) on the MU career list.
The Golden Eagles were projected to place third in the BIG EAST Conference Preseason Coaches' Poll. MU returns eight of 10 starters from last season, including Preseason BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year Mason Woodward and preseason all-conference selections in Cowan and O'Grady.
In total, the Golden Eagles return 94 percent of their offensive production this season from the highest-scoring team (13.29 goals per game) in program history.
Head coach Andrew Stimmel is in his fifth season as MU's program steward. He also served one year as a MU assistant coach in 2016 during the team's first BIG EAST championship season.

NOTRE DAME (1-0, 0-0 ACC)

The defending NCAA Champion Irish defeated Cleveland State, 25-3, in their season opener on Wednesday afternoon at the Loftus Sports Center.
Jake Taylor scored five goals in the season opener against the Vikings, while Chris and Pat Kavanagh each had five points.
The Irish return their top five goal scorers from last season and four players who recorded at least 30 points in Pat Kavanagh (77), Chris Kavanagh (62), Eric Dobson (45) and Jake Taylor (33).
Liam Entenmann is the nation's top returning goalie after earning USILA Most Outstanding Goalie, ACC Defensive Player and Goalie of the Year and NCAA Championship MVP.
The 2024 Tewaaraton Award Watch List includes Dobson, Entenmann and Pat Kavanagh.
The Notre Dame men's lacrosse roster contains each of the football team's last two bowl game most valuable players in midfielders Tyler Buchner and Jordan Faison. Buchner was starting quarterback during ND's Gator Bowl victory in 2022, while Faison was a freshman wide receiver this fall and earned MVP honors in the Tony The Tiger Sun Bowl. Faison is a top-50 lacrosse recruit in this year's freshman class and recorded a hat trick while starting his NCAA debut against Cleveland State.
ND allowed just 9.69 goals per game in 2023 to lead the ACC and rank sixth nationally.

HISTORY WITH THE IRISH

Marquette is 0-11 all-time against Notre Dame and 0-2 against the Irish at Valley Fields.
The lone meeting inside the seasonal dome at Valley was an 18-8 loss to then-No. 10 Notre Dame on April 12, 2022.
MU and ND have played to three single goal decisions, including MU losses at then-No. 2/1 Notre Dame in 2016 in overtime and then-No. 7/10 ND in 2017. The lone one-goal loss at home was a 7-6 decision in the stadium at Valley Fields on April 11, 2018, when MU surrendered two goals in the final 42 seconds for the defeat.

MATCHUP WITH NO. 1

Saturday's game marks the first time that the Golden Eagles will host the nation's top-ranked team.
MU is 1-2 all-time against the No. 1 team in the USILA Coaches Poll. MU's lone victory is also the most recent matchup with No. 1, a 10-9 win at Denver in the 2016 BIG EAST title game. MU also fell to No. 1 Notre Dame, 14-7, on April 7, 2015, and at No. 1 Denver, 14-11, on April 30, 2016.
Those two matchups against No. 1 Denver in 2016 are the only other time MU has squared off against the defending NCAA champion.
MU has hosted 13 matchups with top-10 teams in southeastern Wisconsin, the two most recent of which were overtime losses to then-No. 9 Georgetown and then-No. 10 Denver to close out the 2023 regular season at Valley Fields.
MU's only win over a top-10 team at Valley Fields was an 11-3 victory over then-No. 5 Villanova on April 2, 2016, during Marquette's first BIG EAST championship campaign.
In addition to the men's lacrosse meeting with Notre Dame, a pair of other MU teams will face the nation's No. 1 in their respective sports over a upcoming three-day span (Feb. 17-19). The No. 4 Marquette men's basketball team travels to No. 1 UConn on Saturday afternoon, while the MU women's lacrosse team faces No. 1 Northwestern on Monday, Feb. 19.

WOODWARD IS ELITE

Close defenseman Mason Woodward is a consensus preseason All-American and the unanimous BIG EAST Preseason Defensive Player of the Year.
The four-time team captain is a three-time USILA All-American and garnered third team honors last season.
The native of Towson, Maryland is on the Tewaaraton Award Watch List for the second time this spring.
Woodward led the Golden Eagles in caused turnovers in each of his first four seasons and is the program's all-time leader in ground balls per game (4.71 per contest entering 2023).
He was the BIG EAST leader in ground balls among non-faceoff specialists in each of the last three 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 surpassed the Marquette career ground ball record held by USILA All-American Liam Byrnes (218) with four ground balls against Lindenwood on Feb. 9, 2024.
Woodward's 70 caused turnovers are second to Byrnes (102) in team history.

MU LOADED WITH EXPERIENCE

Marquette returns 10 graduate students in addition to 14 other seniors looking to get MU back to the NCAA tournament for the first time since consecutive appearances in 2016-17.
Three-time USILA All-American Mason Woodward is back for a fifth year, as are fellow captains Devon Cowan, Jake Stegman, Noah Verlinde and Luke Williams. Cowan, Stegman and Williams all made late decisions last spring to return for 2024.
Stegman leads the MU contingent entering this season with 46 career games played, while Woodward, Max Kruszeski, Verlinde and Cowan have each played over 40 games at MU. Faceoff specialist Grant Evans played 54 games over four seasons at NCAA Division III Grove City College (2019-22) and 12 last year for Marquette.

MU HAS VETERAN OFFENSIVE PIECES

Cowan and Stegman return alongside junior scoring dynamo Bobby O'Grady to lead an offense that ranked as the highest scoring in program history last spring with 13.29 goals per contest and brings back 94 percent of its point production.
O'Grady and Cowan have 97 and 91 career goals, respectively, and are within striking distance of Ryan McNamara's program record of 102.
Stegman has 66 career assists and passed Conor Gately's MU record of 63 in the win over Detroit Mercy on Feb. 13.
Stegman set a single-season program record with 32 assists in 2023 (12 more than the previous record set by Gately in 2013). The Naperville, Illinois native switched to a spot in MU's first midfield unit during league play and responded with his first all-conference season.

O'GRADY VAULTS UP MU RECORD BOOK

Bobby O'Grady burst onto the scene as the 2022 BIG EAST Freshman of the Year and has scored at an elite pace in his first two seasons at Marquette (3.02 goals per game).
Through just 32 games of his NCAA career, he's second in program history in career goals (97) and the all-time leader in man-up scores (21).
He 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.

Keep up with the Marquette men's lacrosse program through social media by following on X (@MarquetteMLax) and Instagram (@MarquetteMLax) and 'liking' on Facebook (/MarquetteMLax).

MLAX hosts No. 1 Notre Dame on Sunday at Valley Fields

Players Mentioned

Carsen Brandt

Devon Cowan

Grant Evans

Max Kruszeski

Bobby O'Grady

Jake Stegman

Noah Verlinde

Luke Williams

Mason Woodward

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