MLAX heads to face No. 13/12 Harvard on Saturday

MILWAUKEE – The Marquette University men’s lacrosse team heads to New England for just the second time in program history to face No. 13/12 Harvard on Saturday, March 1.

Action at Jordan Field in Cambridge, Massachusetts begins at noon Central time and the game airs live on ESPN+.

Live statistics are linked through GoMarquette.com, courtesy of Harvard Athletics.

MARQUETTE (2-2, 0-0 BIG EAST)

• The Golden Eagles are 2-2 following home victories over Detroit Mercy and Cleveland State and road losses at then-No. 15 Michigan and No. 1 Notre Dame.
• Midfielder Noah Snyder (Irving, New York) is the BIG EAST Freshman of the Week after posting the first five points of his NCAA career in Saturday’s 15-7 win over Cleveland State with a hat trick and two assists.
• Snyder’s recent emergence and the improving health of Zach Hulme, who missed the first three games of the season, has provided the Golden Eagles with significant offensive depth that was missing earlier in the year. Snyder assisted on both of sophomore Beau Westphal‘s two goals against the Vikings in the second midfield.
• Senior attackman Bobby O’Grady now has 144 career points and jumped past Jake Stegman‘s 140 in the game at ND on Feb. 15. He is currently the program record holder with 122 career goals and is eight points from tying Ryan McNamara‘s program record of 152 points.
• Senior attackman Nolan Rappis is MU’s point leader (7-11-18) and set a program single-game record with 10 points (five goals, five assists) in the win over UDM on Feb. 8.
• As a team, the Golden Eagles are eighth nationally in man-up opportunities with a .583 success rate (7-of-12) this season.
• Redshirt freshman faceoff specialist and Hofstra-transfer Chandler Caster is 16th nationally with a winning percentage of .617 at the dot (29-of-47), while the Golden Eagles have won 56-of-105 total draws (.533). This week’s opponent, Harvard, has won just 28-of-95 draws this season and its .295 mark ranks 73rd out of 74 teams in NCAA Division I.
• MU is picked to tie for fifth place with St. John’s in the BIG EAST Preseason Coaches’ Poll and attackman Bobby O’Grady was selected to the league’s all-preseason team.
• O’Grady, senior midfielder Will Foster and junior short-stick defensive midfielder Peter Detwiler are team captains for the 2025 campaign.
• Former MU USILA All-American Jake Richard, a Team USA and PLL defensive midfielder, is in his first season as head coach at his alma mater. Richard has been involved with all 170 games in program history as either a student-athlete (2013-16) or assistant coach (2017-24). During his playing career, he led MU to the program’s first BIG EAST Conference title in 2016 and still ranks among MU’s all-time leaders in games played (fourth, 61), ground balls (fourth, 193), and caused turnovers (sixth, 38).

NO. 13/12 HARVARD (2-1, 0-0 IVY)

• The Crimson are 2-1 this spring and secured a second road victory at then-No. 6 Syracuse (15-14) on Saturday, Feb. 22, to mark the first win over the Orange in program history.
• Harvard’s first loss of the season was at home to Colgate, 19-15, on Feb. 18 after the Crimson claimed a 12-10 win at then-No. 20 Providence on Saturday, Feb. 15 in the season opener.
• Following a 1-1 week the Crimson moved up to 13th in the USILA Coaches’ Poll and 12th in the media poll.
• Harvard has been efficient offensively in its first three contests, boasting a .778 conversion rate on extra-man opportunities and a shot percentage mark (.359) that ranks sixth nationally. Its 14.0 goal per game scoring average is the 12th highest nationally against a tough early schedule.
• Goalie Graham Stevens has posted 13.0 saves per contest.
• Senior attackman and 2024 All-Ivy First Team honoree Sam King has 11 assists through three games to rank third nationally with 3.67 assists per contest.
• Junior Teddy Malone and sophomore Jack Speidell lead the Crimson with nine goals apiece.
• Malone posted five points in Harvard’s last game at Syracuse as the Crimson responded from a five-goal deficit for the 15-14 victory.
• Harvard ranks 73rd nationally in face-off win percentage, placing them second-to-last with a .295 overall face-off win percentage.
• Head coach Gerry Byrne is in his sixth season leading the Crimson, following a 16-year tenure as assistant coach at Notre Dame.
• Assistant coach Nick Grill was a three-year starter and All-BIG EAST selection at Marquette from 2017-19 and still ranks ninth in MU history with 23 career caused turnovers. He led MU to a BIG EAST tournament crown and NCAA appearance as a freshman starter on close defense in 2017.
• Grill and MU assistant coach Mark Bieda played together as prep student-athletes at Bridgewater-Raritan High School in New Jersey.

HISTORY WITH THE CRIMSON

• Marquette meets Harvard for the first time on Saturday.
• It will be MU’s second game in program history in New England. The other contest was an 11-5 win at Quinnipiac on March 19, 2016.
• MU’s only matchup with an Ivy League institution was a 21-11 loss at then-No. 7/6 Cornell on April 11, 2023.
• Marquette has just two Massachusetts natives on its roster in O’Grady (Milton) and freshman pole Colin Maloney (Topsfield). Assistant coach Will Roberts is also from the Bay State and holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Clark University in Worcester.

RAPPIS IS A REVELATION

• Senior attackman Nolan Rappis is Marquette’s point leader early in the 2025 campaign after little offensive production during his first three seasons on campus. The native of nearby Delafield, Wisconsin is an ambidextrous X attackman and has developed a quick rapport to MU’s young but talented offensive unit.
• He is the team leader with 18 total points on seven goals and 11 assists through four games.
• Rappis entered 2025 with just 16 total points in 19 career contests and currently is ninth nationally entering the weekend with 2.75 assists per game.
• Rappis was named to the USILA Team of the Week and earned BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll recognition for his play against Detroit Mercy on Feb. 8. He was also on the league honor roll on Monday for posting a game-high six points (2g, 4a) in the win over Cleveland State on Feb. 22.

O’GRADY VAULTS UP MU RECORD BOOK

• Bobby O’Grady burst onto the scene as the 2022 BIG EAST Freshman of the Year and scored at an elite pace in his first three seasons at Marquette (2.65 goals per game). He’s a three-time All-BIG EAST performer and was named to the league’s all-preseason team in January.
• Through 47 games of his NCAA career, he’s the all-time program leader in goals (122) and man-up scores (22). He broke Ryan McNamara’s program goal record of 102 against then-No. 13/12 Michigan on Feb. 24, 2024, in Naples, Florida.
• He turned in a record-setting season as a true freshman in 2022, setting new program records for goals (45) and man-up scores (13). He also recorded just the fourth 50-point season at Marquette and tied a BIG EAST record with eight goals at St. John’s on April 9, 2022.
• O’Grady (144 career points) is just eight points from McNamara’s program points record of 152.

ANOTHER CHALLENGING SCHEDULE

• The Golden Eagles will once again face a difficult non-conference schedule in addition to the always-challenging BIG EAST Conference slate.
• In addition to the season opener at then-No. 15 Michigan on Feb. 1, the Golden Eagles faced the two-time defending NCAA Champion No. 1 Notre Dame on Feb. 15 in Indiana. MU also has road contests at No. 13/12 Harvard on March 1 and Utah on March 15.
• The BIG EAST Conference features two squads ranked in both polls in No. 17/15 Denver and No. 10 Georgetown, while Providence was recently ranked. The Hoyas are the unanimous preseason league favorites, while MU was tied for fifth with St. John’s in the coaches’ survey.

BRANDT IMPRESSED AS FROSH

• Attackman Carsen Brandt played a large role early in his freshman season last spring and is expected to be a large contributor to the MU offensive unit. He notched his first hat trick of the 2025 season on Feb. 15 at No. 1 Notre Dame while being covered by USILA All-American close defenseman Shawn Lyght. He added a second hat trick alongside two assists on Feb. 22 against Cleveland State.
• The 6-foot-3 native of Edina, Minnesota was the No. 54 incoming freshman last season, according to Inside Lacrosse, and ended the 2024 campaign with 16 goals and 12 assists while starting all 14 contests. His 28 points were third on the squad.
• Brandt was mentored by former MU All-American and fellow Minnesotan Ryan McNamara and is one of the best prep players to come from the Gopher State. As a junior at Benilde St. Margaret’s, he set state records for most points in state tournament history (21), most points in a tournament game (10) and most assists in a state tournament (12) and most assists in a state tournament game (seven).

NEW FACES ON DEFENSE AND SPECIALTY UNITS

• The Golden Eagles lost a pair of starting close defensemen in Woodward and Noah Verlinde and must also replace all-conference faceoff specialist Luke Willams and goalie Caleb Creasor, who started every game last spring.
• Poles David Lamarca (44 career games entering 2025) and Mike Piraino (22 games) return as MU’s most experienced defenders and played both LSM and close defense last season. Ryan Kilcoyne served as MU’s fourth defenseman and started four games last year in addition to serving on MU’s man-down unit.
• Head coach Jake Richard, a former D-mid himself, will rely upon team captain Peter Detwiler to lead MU’s rope unit and contributions from younger players. Detwiler played in all 28 games (34 ground balls and seven caused turnovers) over his first two seasons at MU and grad student Jadyn Castillo redshirted last spring. Redshirt junior Brendan Boyle has also played both short stick and pole during his 25-game career.
• In net, Lucas Lawas returns after playing just 38 minutes last season behind Creasor. Lawas played big minutes at the end of his freshman campaign in 2023, which featured overtime losses to three top-12 teams to end the season.
• At the faceoff dot, native Wisconsinite Adam Slager (Stoughton) is the lone returner. Slager played in eight games in 2024 as a redshirt freshman, won 55.8% of his draws (43-of-77) and picked up 22 ground balls. All but one of his appearances came prior to the start of BIG EAST action.

FORMER GOLDEN EAGLES SHINE FOR TEAM USA AND IN PRO LACROSSE

• Marquette is represented in the highest levels of the sport by some of the world’s best lacrosse players in Liam Byrnes (’16), Jake Richard (’16), John Wagner (’19) and Mason Woodward (’24).
• Woodward, now in his first season as assistant coach at his alma mater, was a first-round selection of the Utah Archers in the PLL College Draft and led the Archers to a repeat PLL crown in the summer of 2024. His play in the championship game was instrumental to the victory for the Archers with three ground balls and a caused turnover that spurred his own two-point goal to swing momentum.
• Woodward, a defenseman ranked No. 30 in the 2024 PLL Players Top 50, concluded his rookie campaign with seven points on three goals and a pair of two-pointers, alongside 26 ground balls and 12 caused turnovers. In two PLL playoff games he notched seven ground balls and caused four turnovers.
• Wagner captured a silver medal in the 2024 World Lacrosse Men’s Box Championship in Albany playing with Team USA. Wagner is fourth in MU history in goals (77) and sixth in career points (109) and helped the Golden Eagles to a pair of BIG EAST titles as a freshman and sophomore in 2016 and 2017.
• Byrnes and current head coach Jake Richard helped Team USA to its 11th gold medal in the 2023 World Lacrosse Men’s Championship from June 21-July 1, 2023, in San Diego, California. Byrnes and Richard are long-time members of the American training team and were selected to the active roster for the event in the fall of 2022.
• Byrnes is all All-Premier Lacrosse League close defenseman and led Waterdogs LC to a league title in 2022, while Richard plays SSDM. Byrnes also plays box lacrosse in the NLL.

HOME GAMES ON FLOSPORTS

• All home games for both MU men’s and women’s programs will be broadcast live on FloSports, the BIG EAST Conference’s digital rights holder. Discounted rates for FloSports accounts are available by signing up through the Marquette portal for either men’s or women’s (signing up with either link will work for both sports).
• Most BIG EAST games, home- and road-contests, will be available through FloSports. Check MU’s online schedule for updated direct links to live statistics and broadcasts throughout the season.

IRON DISTRICT MKE, THE FUTURE HOME OF MU LAX

• Iron District MKE, the new home stadium for men’s and women’s soccer and lacrosse sits on an 11-acre parcel of land that Marquette University sold in spring 2022 to Bear Development who, together with Kacmarcik Enterprises, is developing the area into a vibrant sports and entertainment district.
• The development, bordered by N. 6th Street to the east, N. 10th Street to the west, and W. Michigan Street to the north, is centered around an 8,000-seat stadium, includes a 3,500-capacity indoor concert venue operated by the Pabst Theater Group, will have a 140-unit residential component, boutique hotel, in addition to dining, nightlife and retail operations.
• Per the Milwaukee Business Journal (Feb. 24, 2025), construction on the facility is expected to begin this summer. The plan is to have the facility completed by the spring opening of the USL Championship league’s 2026 season in March.

Keep up with the Marquette men’s lacrosse program through social media by following on X (@MarquetteMLax) and Instagram (@MarquetteMLax) and ‘liking’ on Facebook (/MarquetteMLax).

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.