ELLA FREAKING MAUTZ WINS IT FOR MARQUETTE

For the first time all season — there have only been four previous home games, part of this is not my fault — I was actually available to make my way down to Valley Fields to see Marquette women’s lacrosse in action on Monday afternoon. Out of the gate, this seemed like a great choice as Marquette scored four goals in the first seven minutes to jump out to a 4-0 lead. After that, the two teams traded goals for the rest of the first half, and as someone cheering for the team that was up 4-0 to start with, I was pretty okay with seeing the Golden Eagles up 8-4 at intermission.

It’s important to note two things here.

The first is that Marquette should have been up 5-1 at the end of the first quarter because Ella Mautz scored a goal but had it waved off on a post-goal stick check and she was determined to have an illegal stick string situation. Just repeating it for you: Ella Mautz had a goal taken away.

The second is that MU goalie Jillian Howell had not one but two goals in the second quarter hit her stick as she made a save on them, then backspin up into the air over her shoulder and into the net. Thus: You could make an argument that physics was responsible for the 8-4 margin at the break instead of Marquette leading 8-2 if the spin didn’t happen. Just noting it.

The third quarter started off a lot like the first quarter as Dani Serrano scored what was essentially a second consecutive goal as she had the last goal of the second quarter and the first goal of the third. That triggered a 4-1 Marquette run in the period that was technically 5-1 going back to Serrano’s goal with less than 30 seconds to go before the half. When Serrano — yes, again — scored with 7:35 to go, Marquette was up 12-5 and seemingly in full control of this game.

All in all, a fun day at the ballpark (12-6) to watch the Golden Eagles (12-7 at the end of the third) secure a victory (12-8) to wrap up non-conference play this season.

Hey, wait a minute.

Audrey Carr scored for UC Davis with 12:43 to go, and Marquette head coach Meredith Black pulled goalie Jillian Howell after four unanswered goals in less than seven minutes of game time. 12-9.

Mikayla Yang whiffed on UC Davis’ first two shots after the switch. 12-10, 12-11, and there’s 10 long minutes of game to go. Marquette was up 12-5 with 22:35 to play, and now they need to tighten things up and find a way through to the end of this game.

Marquette immediately tightened it up, so the UC Davis run of six goals in about nine minutes of game action was slowed with the Golden Eagles still holding onto a lead. Mary Velner scooped a ground ball to break up a Davis power play. Aggies goalie Emily Altshuler made a save, one of three in the fourth quarter for her, extending Marquette’s goalless streak out to 13-plus minutes.

And then, with 5:15 to play, Rhea Cosand switched things up. She had four goals in this UC Davis run, and now she had two assists in it as well, finding Catie McCauley for this game tying strike.

YIKES.

The wild part about it? Marquette had their chances. It was 5-0 UC Davis in goals at this point, but Marquette had won the draw after each and every single one of the goals. They had the possession with a chance to answer and break up the run, but just could not make the one play they needed.

So Hanna Bodner decided to do something about it. She won that fifth draw, her third of the period at that point, then took the shot at Altshuler, then after Davis took it to the other end after a save, it was Bodner picking up the ground ball to give Marquette all the time in the world with 3:28 to play.

Remember when I mentioned that Ella Mautz had a goal taken away in the first quarter? She hadn’t scored again after that.

Well, not until she did this with 2:50 to go.

Dekes the defender, turns the corner, dodges the traffic from the help, keeps it high to protect it, and beats Altshuler for MU’s first goal since Serrano broke that poor Aggies’ ankles back in the third.

Then what? OF COURSE HANNA BODNER WON THE DRAW.

With a 90 second shot clock, Marquette couldn’t end the game here, not with 2:50 to go. If they just burned it all down, that would still give the Aggies 1:20 to work with. So, there was value in trying to score here, so you can’t fault Riley Jenkins for committing the charge and giving Davis the ball back.

The Aggies finished their clear with 1:42 to play, so they were going to get their full shot clock to work with and get the equalizer…… and then Lauren Picardi just completely airmailed a pass to switch sides of the field up top 20 yards from the net. Marquette ball, less than 90 seconds left, shot clock out, Golden Eagles played keep away, and that’s a 13-12 win that looked VERY far away for a few moments there.

Dani Serrano gets the top points total for the day, finishing with five on four goals and an assist, while Hanna Bodner matched her on goals and added two ground balls, a caused turnover, and a game high 10 draw controls to the afternoon.

Highlights, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and ESPN+:

We gotta do something about the pregame B-roll of campus that they’re using on the broadcast, because it was a beautiful day in Milwaukee on Monday.

UP NEXT: Marquette is 6-4 on the year, and they’ve got nothing but Big East games in front of them from here on out. That next league game is coming up this weekend when the Golden Eagles hit the road for the first of two in a row away from Valley Fields. They’ll head out to Ohio to face Xavier, with first draw set for 11am on Saturday, March 28th, and ESPN+ will have the broadcast. The Musketeers are not good this year at 2-8 right now after opening Big East play with a 14-8 loss to Villanova. They’ll host 5-7 California on Tuesday evening before getting ready for the Golden Eagles.

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