LOUISVILLE, Ky.—The Bellarmine lacrosse team made its home debut in exciting style, but unfortunately for the Knights, the final result was a 9-8 triple overtime loss to the Marquette Golden Eagles. 
 
After 60 minutes, the teams were deadlocked at 8-8, so the game went to the "sudden victory" overtime period. The first 4-minute extra session produced no goals, and neither did the second overtime as Bellarmine goalie JC Higginbotham made five of his 14 saves in extra time.
 
As time expired in the second extra session, Bellarmine was flagged for a one-minute unnecessary roughness penalty, which gave possession to the Golden Eagles to start the third overtime. 
 
Although Bellarmine had officially killed the one-minute man-up opportunity, Marquette's Bobby O'Grady found the back of the net for the fourth time and Russell Melendez was credited with his fifth assist of the game as the Eagles recorded the game winner just 1:05 into the third overtime.

"I am really proud of the effort we gave today," said Bellarmine Coach Andrew Whitley. "Everyone in our locker room will look back and think of a play they could have handled or executed better, but that's the nature of these one-goal games. We need to execute better in these pressure situations, but we will continue to grow and learn as a team."

"We had our chances to win," Whitley added. "Marquette just made one more play at the end."  
 
The triple overtime affair marked just the second time in program history that Bellarmine has gone three extra sessions with the only other time coming in an 8-7 loss to Butler in 2006, BU's first year as full-fledged D1 program. The last time the Knights went extra time was the BU-Marquette game in 2018 when the Knights won 7-6 in double OT.
 
Today's game was close throughout with Marquette's 3-1 advantage early in the second quarter representing the largest lead held by either team.
 
Bellarmine's Patrick Keegan opened the game's scoring 5:23 into the contest on an assist from Benny O'Rourk, but it was 15 minutes before the Knights made another goal.  In the meantime, Marquette went on a 3-0 run. 
 
When the Knights finally broke their 15-minute drought on Benjamin Hubbs' first collegiate goal, they didn't wait long to score again as Luke Legnard knotted the game at three goals apiece on a feed from Kyle Playsted just 99 seconds later.  
 
After O'Grady gave the lead back to Marquette midway through the second period, Bellarmine closed the half with goals by Denton Macdonald and Christian Della Rocco and took a 5-4 lead into halftime.
 
The third period featured the most offense with six of the game's 17 goals being registered.  Marquette scored the first and last goals of the period and took an 8-7 advantage in the fourth period. The lone goal in the final period came from Bellarmine's Justin Wescoat as the freshman scored in his third straight game.
 
The Eagles were the definite aggressors in the overtime sessions, outshooting the Knights 13-0 after regulation. Marquette also did a solid job of taking care of the ball in the extra time, not committing a single turnover after giving it up 21 times in the first 60 minutes.
 
Final stats show a 46-28 shot advantage for Marquette, but the Knights trailed just 23-20 in shots on goal. Bellarmine spread the offense around with eight different players scoring goals while Playsted got the assist on half of Bellarmine's scores. Defensively, Jon Robbins set a new Bellarmine record with six caused turnovers in a game. The previous record of five was held by six different players (including Robbins).

Whitley said he was pleased with his team's progression. "We made some real improvements in the clearing game week," he said, crediting his staff (Nicholas Marks, Steve Soriano and Mike Ondrusek) for implementing the positive changes.

The Knights stay in town for their next game, hosting Canisius College at noon on Saturday, Feb. 19.