Lacrosse Opens Season Saturday at Marquette

CINCINNATI -- The University of Cincinnati lacrosse team will begin its 15th season Saturday when the Bearcats play at Marquette (1 p.m. ET).

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NEW AND OLD BOSSES
Head coach Gina Thomas enters her 10th season at the helm. UC, which played in the AAC Semifinals last season, was picked fourth in the league.

Both Haley Hardy and Jamie Redding join the program as first-year assistant coaches. Hardy was previously the head coach at Radford, announced in October 2014 to usher in the new program. Hardy (formerly Marvine) was a standout goalkeeper at UC from 2008-11 and team captain. Redding was a former All-BIG EAST selection at Louisville and spent the past two seasons at Niagara. She was at Holy Cross for the three years before that.

UC TRIO EARNS PRESEASON NODS
Dani Mlkvy, Peyton Mottice and Kylie Nause all earned Preseason All-AAC honors. Mlkvy has started all but two games over her first two seasons, scooping 25 ground balls last season. She helped UC to finish second in the AAC with 9.59 caused turnovers per game.

Mottice produced career-highs of four assists and four goals in consecutive March contests against Robert Morris and Central Michigan. Nause, the 2019 AAC Freshman of the Year, had 38 points (31 goals) to tie Alyssa Adams for the team lead among returners.

LAST MEETING AND SERIES HISTORY
Cincinnati scored three goals over the final 3:49, capped by Adams' strike with 22 seconds left for a season-opening, 20-19 win inside the Sheakley Athletics Center bubble. The Bearcats held Marquette to no goals over the final 7:24 after the visitors scored 11 in the second half prior. Nause scored a career-high five goals in the contest.

The Bearcats have won two of the last three meetings, trailing 6-3 in the all-time series. UC fell 17-6 at Marquette in 2020 and won 22-18 in 2019.

ROSTER ADDITIONS
Adams, fourth in program history with 98 goals, joined the team in January for her fifth season. Ava Goeller, the Big South's 2021 Freshman of the Year, joined UC as an impact transfer while following her former head coach, Haley Hardy. Goeller had 40 goals, 33 draw controls and 21 ground balls last season.

ADDITIONAL NOTES
UC was aggressive last season in leading the AAC in fouls per contest (22.94) and finishing second with 9.59 caused-turnovers per game. Nause (2.38, fourth) and Adams (2.06, ninth) ranked in the league's top-10 for scoring. The team did lose 12 seniors, including Monica Borzillo, whose 197 goals were the most in school history.