The Golden Eagles shook off several penalties in the first quarter and cracked the season opener wide open in the second period.
Fifth verse, same as the first: YOUR Marquette Golden Eagles women’s lacrosse team is 1-0 to start the 2026 season, just like they have been for the last four seasons, picking up a 20-9 home win over Eastern Michigan on Friday afternoon. Not only is it the fifth straight win in a season opener for Marquette, it is the sixth straight win in a home opener for head coach Meredith Black’s team.
That’s not to say that it was 100% a good time from beginning to end. It certainly looked like it was going to be, as Hanna Bodner caused a turnover on the first possession of the game and then Riley Jenkins sent home a Tess Osburn feed for the first goal of the year on the first shot of the season for the Golden Eagles.
It was 3-0 Marquette on the second and third shots of the year as the Golden Eagles took just 43 seconds to tally the next two markers. Then things took a sideways jaunt for a while. Penalties on Sofia Santana and Mary Velner allowed EMU to break onto the scoreboard, and then they got comfortable throwing it in the net. All of a sudden, it was 4-3 Eagles, and I don’t mean the Golden kind.
Then it was Marquette’s turn to make use of the power play as Dani Serrano found the back of the net twice less than a minute apart to put MU back in front, 5-4. Those were the first two career goals for Serrano after the freshman got an assist on MU’s third goal of the game, and then she finished the natural hat trick with 5:11 left in the first quarter.
Yes, it was 6-4 Marquette with lots of time left in the quarter. Averaging about a goal a minute, although a lot of power play advantages played a part there. Eastern Michigan would score with an extra woman one more time before the quarter ended, but MU scored the final two goals of the period to go up 8-5 heading to the second. Tumultuous quarter of lacrosse, to say the least.
After the two sides traded goals to start the second, Marquette busted the game open. Six different Golden Eagles scored before halftime to make it 17-7 and kick the running clock on. MU scored the only two goals of the third quarter to make it a 10-1 run and thus make the score 19-7 heading into the fourth. EMU clawed back two more even though the game was long since decided, and Riley Schultz made sure that the visiting Eagles left town with a bad taste in their mouth with one final goal with 1:15 to play.
Tess Osburn is your point leader here, putting up seven to start the season with four goals and three assists. Dani Serrano opened up her Marquette account with three assists to go with her natural hat trick, and Riley Jenkins (4) and Hanna Bodner (3) both had hat tricks for the Golden Eagles. Marquette tallied nine assists on their 20 goals in the game, which is a good ratio made even better by taking out the two free position goals.
Marquette’s ability to win draws took over the game in the second quarter. They won the first frame 9-5, but the 8-2 advantage in the second helped MU pile the goals on. With the clock running in the second half, there weren’t that many more draws, but Marquette did win five of the six to get the Golden Eagles to a 22-8 advantage in that department here.
The only true notable problem that we have to discuss is the fact that Mikayla Yang didn’t record a single save in the first half before she gave way to Jillian Howell while up 17-7 at halftime. Part of this is not Yang’s fault as Marquette was whistled for five penalties in the first quarter alone and EMU scored on three of them. Still, she allowed seven goals on nine shots faced, which is, y’know, not great when all seven shots on goal go in. Given the margin, I don’t think we can take a lot away from Jillian Howell making eight saves on 10 shots on goal and 14 shots overall in the second half, but at the end of the day, the returning junior starter made no saves and the freshman made eight.
Highlights, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and ESPN+:
Up Next: A quick turnaround. Marquette will go precisely 48 hours between first draws when Cincinnati comes to town for a 12pm Central time start on Sunday. ESPN+ will have the broadcast on that one as well. The Bearcats opened up their season with a 17-9 crosstown road win over Xavier on Friday evening.
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Category: General Sports
