MLAX heads to No. 7/6 Cornell for a Tuesday night

MILWAUKEE The Marquette University men’s lacrosse team will head to Ithaca, New York, to take on No. 7/6 Cornell on Tuesday afternoon at Schoellkopf Field.

The faceoff will take place at 11:00 a.m. ET, and the contest will be broadcast live on ESPN+. Live stats are also available on GoMarquette.com courtesy of Cornell Athletics.

After Tuesday’s game at Cornell, the Golden Eagles return to Milwaukee to host 9/10 Georgetown on Saturday afternoon. MU closes out April with games at No. 13 Villanova and Friday, April 28 against No. 11/12 Denver on Senior Night in Milwaukee.

MARQUETTE (6-4, 1-1 BIG EAST): The Golden Eagles bounced back from an April 1 loss to Providence in the BIG EAST Conference opener with a 20-10 win over St. John’s on Saturday afternoon. Marquette’s 20 goals is its second-highest total in program history, and is topped only by the 23 it scored last season at SJU. Striker Bobby O’Grady led MU with a game-high four goals as a freshman Charlie Reynolds scored his first career goal and hat trick against the Red Storm. In addition, MU senior Devon Cowan He became the fourth player in Marquette history to reach 100 career points with two goals Saturday.

Marquette owns wins this season over two teams currently ranked No. 5 (Penn State) and No. 16/15 (Michigan), along with wins over St. John’s, St. Bonaventure, Lindenwood and Detroit Mercy.

Senior striker Jake Stegman (13 goals, 20 assists) is tied for the team scoring lead with O’Grady at 33, while O’Grady has scored 28 times this season and ranks fifth in program history with 73 career goals.

CORNELL (7-2, 3-1 CIS): The Big Red posted a 10-8 decision at Harvard on Saturday afternoon after winning three straight to open Ivy League play against then-Noah. 8 Yale, then – No. 16/15 Penn and Dartmouth. Cornell fell 10-6 to then-No. 8 Penn State on March 11, a week before MU knocked off the Nittany Lions on Long Island. The Big Red started the season with wins over Albany, Lehigh, Hobart and then No. 8.9. Ohio State.

Junior forward CJ Kirst leads NCAA Division I with 43 goals through nine games, averaging 4.78 goals per game. His 5.78 points per game is also first nationally, while goaltender Chayse Ierlan is fourth nationally with a .576 save percentage.
The Big Red has outscored opponents 131-89 this year, hitting at a .522 clip in the opener, paced by freshman Jack Cascadden’s .598 (58-97).

Cornell head coach Connor Buczek was a teammate of MU’s assistant coach Jacob Richard At the Atlas Lacrosse Club in the opening season of the 2019 Premier Lacrosse League.

HISTORY WITH THE BIG RED: Tuesday’s game will be MU’s first against a member of the Ivy League.

STUNNING DEPTH OF SCREEN ST. JOHN’S

The Golden Eagles scored a season-high 20 goals on April 8 in a win over St. John’s, with several players scoring their first goals of the season. Second year student Nolan Garcia and junior Justin Mintzer each scored in the fourth quarter, while the freshman Charlie Reynolds scored his first career goal with six seconds left in the third. Reynolds added two goals in the fourth period for his first career hat trick. In addition to these three individuals, a redshirt freshman Conor McCabe scored his second goal of the year with five minutes remaining in regulation and graduate Holden Patterson added a pair of goals in the last 50 seconds.

VETERAN ATTACKS ARE KEY for MU

Seniors Devon Cowan and Jake Stegman have proven their importance to Marquette this season and have each reached significant career milestones in recent weeks.

Stegman averaged two assists per game as Marquette’s X-attackman, but has played out of the box since the Penn State win. He is third in Marquette history with 45 assists, trailing only Conor Gately (63) and Ryan McNamara (50). Stegman has 20 assists this season, tied with Gately’s freshman campaign in 2013 for the highest single-season total in program history.

Cowan is second at MU with 15 goals despite playing just seven games so far due to injury. He was slowly worked into action against Michigan and scored a late goal in the win. He scored hat tricks in the three games that followed and became the fourth player in Marquette history to reach 100 career points with two goals against St. John’s on the 8th. April.

WOODWARD IS ELITE

A close defender 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 the honor in both 2016 and 2017). He follows McNamara (2017) and Conor Gately (2015, 2016) as MU players to earn the accolade.

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 through 2023). He was the BIG EAST leader in groundballs among non-faceoff specialists the last two seasons and is the third player in MU history with more than 100 career groundballs and 50 caused turnovers (Liam Byrnes and BJ Grill are the others).

Woodward posted a career-high 12 ground balls at Utah on Feb. 11 and is the NCAA leader in ground balls per game (5.40) among specialists through 10 games. Overall, he ranks 32nd in ground balls per game and has totaled six points (four goals, two assists), 54 ground balls and 14 forced turnovers.

In PC’s BIG EAST opener, Woodward edged out Zachary Melillo (190 GB; 2016-18) and an assistant coach. Jacob Richard (193 GB; 2013-16) second in MU history in career ground balls (he now has 196). Marquette’s all-time ground ball leader Liam Byrnes (218) remains 22 ahead of Woodward.

O’GRADY VAULTS UP MU RECORD BOOK
Bobby O’Grady turned in a record season as a true freshman in 2022, setting new program records in goals (45) and points (13). He also recorded just his fourth 50-point season at Marquette and set a BIG EAST record with eight goals at St. John’s on April 9, 2022.

His 3.00 goals per game in 2022 was an MU single-season record, and just 25 games into his NCAA career, he is currently Fifth in career goals (73) and the all-time leader in scoring (17) in program history.

O’Grady was named the BIG EAST Attack Player of the Week following his third career game with at least six goals and seven points in MU’s opener against Lindenwood. He has also earned weekly honors four times for his games against Utah, Notre Dame, St. Bonaventure and St. John’s.

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