Marquette Men’s Lacrosse Comes Home For The First Time

By: Zach Klupchak

Marquette Men’s Lacrosse Comes Home For The First Time

The Marquette Men’s Lacrosse team will play their first ever home game this weekend against the Detroit Mercy Titans at Hart Park in Wauwatosa. Lacrosse, a primarily East Coast dominant sport has grown tremendously in the last few years in the Midwest especially Wisconsin at all levels. Lacrosse is one of the oldest sports in the country that was first played by the Native Americans. For those unfamiliar with the game it’s kind of a combination of hockey, basketball, and soccer. It’s fast paced, physical style and high scoring makes it one of the best sports to watch. The Marquette Men’s lacrosse team gives you a unique chance to watch some of the best lacrosse players in the country. So for those who are interested, but do not know much about the sport. Fear not, I got you covered. I’ll go over some of the basics so when you’re out watching them this weekend you’ll be able to understand what’s going on.

Positions

So to start off each team has 10 players on the field at one time. You have a goalie, three attackmen, three midfielders, and three defensemen. Each position has its own set of rules they have to play by. For example, Attackmen, they are your scorers they are your offensive players who try to put the ball into the net. Attackmen can only stay on their half of the midline unless a midfielder takes their place. The Defensemen are the ones you’ll see carrying the 6 foot lacrosse sticks and defending the attackmen. And just like the attackmen they can only stay on their side of the midline. The midfielders are usually the most in shape players because it’s their jobs to play both offense and defense. Midfielders can play on both sides of the midline. And there some cases when midfielders are on defense one of the three are allowed to have a 6 foot pole and can run on both sides too. They are called long stick midfielders.


Now that you got the positions down I’ll explain to you some of the rules that makes lacrosse unique. So before I mentioned how lacrosse is a combination of hockey, basketball, and soccer, this is where you’ll see the comparison. So just like in hockey, lacrosse has line changes of players to keep them fresh. Typically, you’ll see midfielders rotate the most because they get tired quicker because of running up and down the field. Lacrosse also starts with a face off after every goal and end of periods. Also much like hockey, lacrosse has a penalty box and they have powerplays. Lacrosse penalties are similar to hockey that you can’t slash another player with your stick, I mean you can slap at their sticks and arms but if you wind up you’re most likely going to called for a penalty and put in the box. Penalties range from major ones like slashing to more minor penalties like being offsides. Most penalties are 2 minutes and some minor ones are even only 30 seconds. When a team commits a penalty there are down that player so instead of defending the other team with 6 they now 5 and gives the other team a man advantage. And you can get multiple penalties at a time so it could end up being 6 on 4, 6 on 3, but rarely does that every happen. One thing that could confuse is that some fouls are not penalized. Players are not put in the penalty box for fouls occurring while the ball is on the ground for the most part. If a player pushes another player down while going for a groundball the ref will blow the whistle and just award the other team the ball. If the player has possession and is pushed over then it is a penalty and a man up advantage.

On each side of the field there are two white boxes. Those white boxes are called the restraining boxes. This is where basketball comes into play in lacrosse. When a team stop a shot and are attempting to go on offense they have 10 seconds to get it over the midline, and 20 seconds overall to get it in the restraining box or it is a turnover. Once a player touches inside the restraining box they can bring the ball back out and begin working an offense, but they must get a “touch” every 10 seconds inside the box.

Lacrosse plays 15 minute quarters and has a halftime and if both teams are tied after regulation they play a sudden death overtime where next goal wins.


So now you have an understanding of the game, here’s somethings to look forward to on Saturday when Marquette takes on Detroit Mercy.


Marquette’s Attackmen #23 Tyler Melnyk. Melnyk leads the team in total points with 27 points with 11 assists and 16 goals. Melnyk is coming off of a 3 goal 2 assist game in their win over High Point. Goalie #55 JJ Sagl is coming off of a career high 16 saves game.


Detroit Mercy’s Attackmen #39 Alex Maini leads the team in total points with 26 and has 17 goals and 9 assists.