Marquette Women’s Lacrosse Announces The 2023 Schedule

With just about two months to go before the season gets started, Marquette women’s lacrosse announced their 2023 schedule on Tuesday.

As mentioned in the tweet, there are nine home games on the schedule for this coming spring, and that will tie 2018 for the program record for most home games for Meredith Black’s Golden Eagles in the 11th season of lacrosse in Milwaukee. Even with that being the case, MU will only play three straight home games once this season, and that won’t happen until April. In a neat little coincidence, that run of home games will immediately follow MU’s longest stretch away from Valley Fields, which is three straight games.

The Big East calendar will be six matches this season with the introduction of Xavier in their first year of Division 1 lacrosse competition. With that in mind, MU will split their 17 game schedule with six in the league, three home and three away, and 11 non-conference matches. Because you can do math, you’ve already figured out that six of the non-con games will be at home, while five will be on the road.

Xavier won’t be the only team that Marquette plays for the first time this season. Of MU’s 11 non-conference opponents, nine are return bouts one way or another. Two are new first time opponents. Youngstown State is in their third season of competition after starting their program with the 2021 season, while Eastern Michigan will be making their Division 1 debut this year. FUN FACT: Marquette women’s lacrosse icon Allison Lane is an assistant coach for EMU.

Everything gets started on February 12th with a home date against San Diego State. The Aztecs hold a 2-0 series lead against Marquette after getting the win in California last season. This will be SDSU’s first trip to Milwaukee. MU will be out on the road the following weekend for that game against Youngstown State on Friday followed by a visit to Cincinnati on Sunday. Marquette is 7-3 all time against the Bearcats, including a 16-13 win last season in what turned out to be MU’s first ever season opening victory. Marquette will return to Milwaukee for a Thursday evening matchup to wrap up February after that as they host Northwestern. As you’d expect for a program with NU’s pedigree, Marquette is 0-7 all time against the Wildcats, falling to a ranked Northwestern team every single time.

Marquette will take over a week off at that point before reconvening in the Valley to face Detroit Mercy on Sunday, March 5. The Golden Eagles are a perfect 7-0 all time against the Titans. One week later, MU will jet out to California for a one-off road date with UC Davis. MU and the Aggies have not faced off since 2015 when the Golden Eagles got a 5-4 overtime win out on the West Coast. After that, it’s back home for a Thursday/Sunday set against Niagara and Louisville in that order. MU is 3-1 against the Purple Eagles since the series started in 2018, but just 1-9 all time against Louisville. The good news there is the lone win did come in Milwaukee in 2019. The last two contests of March will be a Friday/Sunday swing through Michigan. First up is that debut contest against Eastern Michigan on the 24th, and then Marquette will renew their series with Central Michigan on the 26th. Marquette is 6-2 all time against the Chippewas, but CMU has snagged wins in each of the last two games played in Mount Pleasant.

The final month of the regular season starts with the first match of Big East play. That will be that third straight road game, in this case a visit to Georgetown on April 1st. A few days later, Marquette will tangle with Ohio State to wrap up non-conference action at Noon on a Tuesday for some reason. MU is oh-fer in three tries against the Buckeyes, including an 18-11 loss in Columbus last season. After that, it’s nothing but conference contests, and with the exception of a weird Wednesday noon start at Butler, everything the rest of the way is a Saturday or a Sunday game. Senior Day will be on Saturday, April 29th, when Marquette gets the men’s lacrosse time-honored tradition of wrapping up the season with a game against Denver.

Here’s the full schedule!