#4 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (6-2) will be taking on Marquette Golden Eagles (2-4) on Tuesday at Loyola Academy in Wilmette, Illinois at 4:30 pm. This will be the first ever meeting between the two schools that represent the Big East Conference.
In Notre Dame’s last game, they lost to St. John’s (7-2) by a score of 12-10. Senior attack man Sean Rogers notched three goals, while freshman attack man Matt Kavanagh scored twice and had two assists with senior midfielder Tyler Kimball rounding out the scoring with two goals and one assist. Senior goaltender John Kemp registered 11 saves in the loss.
The Irish will be looking to a pair of attack man to lead the offense against the Golden Eagles on Tuesday; team scoring leader Kavanagh has 24 points this season (16G, 18A) while Rogers is third in team scoring with 13 goals and four assists. Face off specialist junior Liam O’Connor has had an outstanding season so far, winning .533 (80/150) of his draws and in his last four games is 40/68 (.588). Marquette will need to make sure they slow down O’Connor if they hope to control the possession game.
Marquette is entering their first season of varsity lacrosse in the NCAA. They are a very young team but have still managed to pick up two wins this season versus Air Force and Mercer. The Golden Eagles took on Georgetown (4-5) last Friday, losing 17-12. Redshirt junior attack man Tyler Melnyk tallied four goals and one assist while redshirt freshman Kyle Whitlow notched a hat trick and one assist. Freshman goaltender Matt Barone had eight saves in the loss.
The Golden Eagles will be relying on their young attack to carry them to victory versus the Irish on Tuesday. Freshman Connor Gately is leading his team in assists (14) and in points (21) this season with junior Bryan Badolato scoring a team high 12 goals.
The difference maker in Tuesday’s game will be the goaltenders. Kemp holds a 7.93 goals against average and .532 save percentage for the Irish and freshman starter JJ Sagl carries a 13.2 goals against average and .444 save percentage for the Golden Eagles. Notre Dame is averaging 9.88 goals per game therefore; Sagl is going to have to stand on his head if there is any chance of the Golden Eagles pulling off an upset.
