MLAX to face No. 8/9 Penn State Saturday in Philly

Game Notes (PDF) | Live Stats | Tickets

MILWAUKEE – The Marquette University men's lacrosse team heads east for a neutral site game against No. 8/9 Penn State on Saturday, March 16 in the Philadelphia area at Springfield High School in Springfield, Pennsylvania.

First faceoff is slated for 1 p.m. Central time (2 p.m. local) and tickets must be purchased ahead of Saturday's game through the Springfield School District's HomeTown Ticketing digital site. Individual tickets for the contest are $15.

The game will not be broadcast, but live statistics during the game will be available on GoMarquette.com.

Following Saturday's action, the Golden Eagles continue their season-long five game road swing on Saturday, March 23 at St. Bonaventure.

MARQUETTE (3-4, 0-0 BIG EAST)

The Golden Eagles opened the season with wins at Air Force and against Lindenwood and Detroit Mercy but have lost their last four contests.
MU's veteran core has reached numerous statistical milestones early this season, including a new program ground ball record for defenseman Mason Woodward (238), career assist record for Jake Stegman (71), career goal mark for Bobby O'Grady (106) and the 100-point threshold for both O'Grady (119) and Stegman (113).
Stegman leads the Golden Eagles with 22 points on eight goals and a team-best 14 assists. O'Grady has a team-high 18 scores in 2024 and three man-up goals.
O'Grady became the program's all-time scoring leader with four goals against then-No. 13/12 Michigan on Feb. 24 to surpass Ryan McNamara's record of 102 in the process. O'Grady now has 106 career goals just 36 games into his career (it took McNamara 64 games to reach 102) along with 119 points, just seven behind teammate Devon Cowan (126) for third all-time at MU.
Woodward is a member of the Tewaaraton Award Watch List and a consensus preseason All-America selection, with recognition from USILA, Inside Lacrosse and USA Lacrosse Magazine.
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.

No. 8/9 PENN STATE (5-1, 0-0 BIG TEN)

The Nittany Lions are 5-1 and have won each of their last five games after a season-opening 13-12 loss to Colgate in State College.
Penn State has most recently defeated a pair of top-10 Ivy League squads in then-No. 9/10 Yale on March 2 in overtime and a 20-9 victory over then-No. 8/9 Cornell last Saturday.
PSU also owns victories over Villanova (18-10), Stony Brook (14-10) and Navy (13-3).
Matt Traynor leads PSU with 23 goals this season, while TJ Malone has a team-best 19 goals and 32 points, including 13 goals. Mac Costin has also reached double figures with 12 goals in 2024.
Jack Fracyon has all six decisions in net and boasts a 9.80 goals against average and a .570 save percentage with 77 saves.
Penn State has outscored its opponents by 11 goals in both the first (24-13) and fourth quarters (21-10) and has a stanza-best 29 goals coming out of the half in the third frame.
Colby Baldwin has taken 105 of the 175 draws at the faceoff dot this spring and is winning at just a .429 clip (45-of-105). Chase Mullins checks in at .522 himself on 69 total draws.
Head coach Jeff Trambroni is in his 14th season on the Penn State sidelines and owns a 112-78 record.

HISTORY WITH THE NITTANY LIONS

Marquette leads the all-time series with Penn State, 1-0.
The Golden Eagles won the lone previous meeting on March 18 last season at Gen. Douglas A. MacArthur High School in Levittown, New York. MU pulled out a 12-11 decision after taking a 6-5 lead into the half and outscoring PSU 4-2 in the third quarter. MU led 12-9 before two PSU goals in the final 51 seconds.
The win over then-No. 5 Penn State was MU's first victory over a ranked team since 2019 and first over a top-10 foe since 2018.
Devon Cowan and Andrew Bowman each had hat tricks last season (Bowman's first career), while Will Foster posted four points on a goal and three assists. Malone led Penn State with a game-high seven points on a pair of goals and five assists.
MU dominated at the dot, winning 19-of-27 (.704), with Pittsburgh-native Grant Evans going 10-of-13 and scoring his first NCAA Division I goal. Luke Williams also went 9-of-14.
MU is 6-9 overall in games against current members of the Big Ten conference.

KEYSTONE STATE VITAL TO GROWTH OF MU LACROSSE

Talent from the state of Pennsylvania played an integral role in the early growth of the Marquette men's lacrosse program with many of its early rosters featuring a large percentage of players from the state.
In addition to former USILA All-Americans Jake and Noah Richard and All-BIG EAST performers Andy DeMichiei and Zach Granger, the state provided the MU lineup with key contributors in Nick Eufrasio, Jackson Ehlert, Dan Mojica, Aaron and Noah Joseph, and Blaine and Griffin Fleming.
Six players on MU's current roster are from Pennsylvania: Grant Evans and JP Henry (Pittsburgh), Peter Detwiler (Devon), Jacob Nottoli (Columbia), Ethan Salvia (Gibsonia) and Zach Hulme (Kennett Square).
In total, 27 Pennsylvania natives have suited up for Marquette.
MU head coach Andrew Stimmel is from Pittsburgh, began his playing career at Penn State and started his head coaching career at Grove City College.
Assistant coach and defensive coordinator Jake Richard played at B. Reed Henderson High School in West Chester.

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 and the Golden Eagles rank in the top 20 nationally with a .561 faceoff percentage.
Williams enters the game against Penn State with the 12th-best faceoff winning percentage in NCAA Division I (.611) and MU's team leader with 5.43 ground balls per game. He is also among the top six 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.

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