MLAX Hosts Lindenwood Friday in Home Opener

Game Notes (PDF)

MILWAUKEE – The Marquette University men's lacrosse team hosts Lindenwood on Friday, Feb. 9 to kick off National Marquette Day Weekend in Milwaukee.

Opening faceoff is slated for 2 p.m. Central time in the seasonal dome at Valley Fields and the contest airs live on FloSports. Local announcer Matt Menzl will handle play-by-play duties for the broadcast, which will be produced by the Marquette University Diederich College of Communications.

Live statistics are also available through GoMarquette.com.

Tickets for the game are available online, by calling the Marquette Ticket Office at 414-288-GOMU (4668) or at the gate on gameday. Capacity in the dome is limited to just 500 spectators.

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 (1-0, 0-0 BIG EAST)

The Golden Eagles began the season with a 12-6 win at Air Force on Saturday, Feb. 3, led by 12 saves from graduate transfer goalie Caleb Creasor. Creasor earned his first career victory and was named BIG EAST Conference Defensive Player of the Week on Monday.
Attackman Carsen Brandt was named BIG EAST Freshman on Feb. 5 after scoring twice in his NCAA debut at Air Force. Graduate attackman Devon Cowan and faceoff specialist Luke Williams were also named to the BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll.
Cowan was one of three MU players (Bobby O'Grady and Luke Blanc) with hat tricks against the Falcons and added an assist for a game-best four points.
Williams won 8-of-12 faceoffs against Air Force and picked up nine ground balls, the second-highest single game total of his career.
Junior attackman Bobby O'Grady notched the 100th point of his career on his first of three goals at Air Force. He's currently second in program history with 91 career goals and fifth in points with 102.
Cowan is third in both points (118) and goals (89) on the MU career list.
The Golden Eagles return a veteran core that is 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.

LINDENWOOD (0-0, 0-0 ASUN)

The Lions are in just their second season of NCAA Division I competition, but also their last as the program will be dropped by the university at the conclusion of the 2024 campaign.
Lindenwood returns ASUN All-Freshman Team attackman Flint Thielen, who posted 18 points (15g, 3a) in 12 games played in 2023.
Graduate defenseman Brian Kallberg was selected to the All-ASUN Preseason Team this spring after picking up 42 ground balls and causing 22 turnovers last season.
Lindenwood is picked to finish last in the ASUN. The Lions went 2-10 overall and 1-8 in ASUN play last season. Their lone victories in 2023 came against LIU and Queens University.

HISTORY WITH THE LIONS

Marquette hosted Lindenwood for the program's first NCAA Division I contest in last season's opener at Valley Fields on Feb. 4. The Golden Eagles earned a 17-2 win behind six goals from Bobby O'Grady and five points from Jake Stegman (2g, 3a).

CREASOR THRIVES NEAR THE CREASE

Graduate transfer Caleb Creasor put forth an impressive effort in his first game in Blue & Gold at Air Force on Feb. 3 with 12 saves to earn his first career victory in net.
The Huntsville, Ontario native earned BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Week after posting two caused turnovers and a pair of ground balls in addition to 12 saves.
Creasor's 12 saves are the second-most for a goalie in a first start in a Marquette uniform after former All-BIG EAST Performer Cole Blazer recorded 13 in an 11-3 victory over then-No. 5/6 Villanova on April 2, 2016. Mike Allieri also had 12 in a win at Bellarmine in 2022 as a redshirt freshman.
Creasor played a total of 16 games during four years at Lehigh and made just one start in 2023. He also posted 10 saves in 53:41 of game action during his career. In addition to the 2020 blanket redshirt year, Creasor did not see the field in 2021 and should have an extra year of NCAA eligibility should he choose to utilize it.
His background as a field player in box lacrosse is evident in his aggressive playing style in net. During the season opener Creasor was out of the crease at times closing angles on shooters and intercepting passes.

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.
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).
Marquette all-time ground ball leader Liam Byrnes (218) is just three ground balls ahead of Woodward.
Woodward's 68 caused turnovers are also 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 91 and 89 career goals, respectively, and are within striking distance of Ryan McNamara's program record of 102.
Stegman has 59 career assists, just four behind Conor Gately's MU record of 63.
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.

BRANDT PRIMED FOR EARLY ROLE

True freshman attackman Carsen Brandt impressed during the preseason and is the third starter alongside Cowan and O'Grady. The 6-foot-3 native of Edina, Minnesota is the No. 54 incoming freshman in the country, according to Inside Lacrosse.
Brandt earned BIG EAST Freshman of the Week on Feb. 5 for his play in his NCAA debut at Air Force on Feb. 3, scoring his first of two goals on the day to give MU a 2-1 lead it would not relinquish.
He is just the seventh player in MU history to score at least twice in an NCAA debut. The others to accomplish the feat are Andrew Bowman (2023), O'Grady (2022), Cowan (2020), Chris Kirschner (2020), Anthony Orsini (2018) and Conor Bernal (2013).
Brandt was mentored by former MU All-American and fellow Minnesotan Ryan McNamara and is one of the best prep players to come from the Gopher State. As a junior at Benilde St. Margaret's, he set state records for most points in state tournament history (21), most points in a tournament game (10) and most assists in a state tournament (12) and most assists in a state tournament game (seven).

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 30 games of his NCAA career he's second in program history in career goals (91) and the all-time leader in man-up scores (20).
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.

DEEP AT THE DOT

Marquette's faceoff unit got a much-needed boost with the return of graduate faceoff specialists Luke Williams, a 2022 All-BIG EAST selection, and Grant Evans for their final seasons of eligibility.
Two of the four seasons that Marquette has faced-off at above a 50-percent clip have come in the last two campaigns.
Williams ranks in the top-seven student-athletes in MU history in both ground balls and faceoff win percentage.
Redshirt freshman Adam Slager from Stoughton, Wisconsin made an impressive career debut in MU's season-opening win at Air Force. In the first playing time of his career, Slager won 8-of-10 draws and picked up four ground balls.
Evans saw his first significant playing time at MU on March 11, 2023 with eight wins on 12 draws against Bellarmine. He followed that up with a 10-of-13 performance with six ground balls and a goal in the victory over then-No. 5 Penn State.
Evans posted a season-long win percentage of .542 (77-of-142) last season and was second on the squad with 47 ground balls.
Evans was a graduate transfer last year from NCAA Division III Grove City College, where he was the NCAA statistical champion in faceoff win percentage (.795) as a freshman in 2019.

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