After Nearly Breaking Through in 2023, Marquette Showing Progress

Marquette is 3-0 entering Sunday’s visit from defending national champion Notre Dame.

It is also showing progress all over the field after the possibility of a breakthrough season fizzled with a string of tight losses.

Take a guess which one is more important for the Golden Eagles’ long-term trajectory.

“We are not chasing perfection,” coach Andrew Stimmel said. “We are chasing improvement at the end of the day. We’ve been talking to our guys about how it’s a race to improve in this early season portion, and we just want to be the best at getting better. As quippy as that sounds, that is the case. If you really show up every day and have the discipline to analyze yourself and be honest with the person in the mirror and be honest in your units, you have a chance to get better.”

The thing is, Marquette really wasn’t bad last season. It beat an NCAA semifinalist (Penn State) and a quarterfinalist (Michigan) on neutral fields, and it featured one of the country’s best defensemen in Mason Woodward.

But it still wound up at 6-8, including a 1-6 record in games decided by two goals or less. The Golden Eagles closed the year in wrenching fashion, with overtime losses to Georgetown, Villanova and Denver. Those were the top three seeds in the Big East tournament, an event Marquette played host to but did not qualify for.

The offense, though, was plenty dangerous. Bobby O’Grady scored 43 goals, Devon Cowan had 26 goals in just 11 games and Jake Stegman had a team-high 32 assists as the Golden Eagles shot 34.0 percent, sixth nationally behind three Memorial Day Weekend teams (Virginia, Penn State and Notre Dame), plus Delaware and Lehigh.

That’s carried into this season, with O’Grady collecting a team-high 11 points (nine goals, two assists) so far. Luke Blanc, another holdover, has a team-best 10 goals, and Stegman set the program’s single-game (six) and career (66) assists record in Tuesday’s drubbing of Detroit Mercy.

“I think if you look at the second half of last year, those guys came on strong at the end of the season and were playing incredibly efficient lacrosse together,” Stimmel said. “Naturally, we had high expectations coming into this year. I still think it’s a group that has a long way to go. They’ll be the first to tell you that.”

Woodward remains a brilliant anchor to the defense, skilled at smothering top-tier attackmen while also being adept at playing without the ball and in transition. An intriguing addition is goalie Caleb Creasor, whose .658 save percentage ranks fifth nationally.

The Lehigh transfer played sparingly for the Mountain Hawks, but he caught Stimmel’s eye during the World Lacrosse U21 World Championships in Ireland in 2022. Stimmel was an assistant for the United States’ gold medal run, while Creasor started for Canada.

“When his name entered the portal, I was someone who had seen him live and in person,” Stimmel said. “I think that’s what makes goalie battles so tough for everybody around the country. A lot of times it is splitting hairs. It might be a style play here or there that fits your defense better. He was close a couple times and lost out to a couple of good goalies at Lehigh. We’re just fortunate for him to be here. He’s a great kid. He’s having an impact and will continue to have an impact on the program.”

Marquette has led by at least two in the second half of each of its games to date — a 12-6 win at Air Force, followed by routs of Lindenwood (16-5) and Detroit Mercy (22-8). Sunday marks an escalation in the schedule; with Michigan, Utah and Penn State looming in the next month, four of the Golden Eagles’ next five games will be against postseason teams from a year ago.

All those opponents crafted memorable seasons last season. Marquette, in its sprint to make progress, would like to join them this May.

“I think it’s easy to look back on those games, and certainly a couple goals go our way and those turn into wins instead of being losses, and you feel like you end your season in a very different way than we did a year ago,” Stimmel said. “At the same time, I think our group has done a good job of allowing that disappointment to be fuel and motivation for how we approach this year. [But] it’s still very early in the season and we have a lot we need to improve on.”