Whitlow's hat trick gives No. 12 Marquette sixth one-goal win

VILLANOVA, Penn. -- Marquette used a balanced effort on offense to emerge with a 9-8 victory on Saturday afternoon against Villanova at Villanova Stadium.

The 12th-ranked Golden Eagles (8-1, 1-1 BIG EAST) were without the services of leading scorer Jordan Greenfield, but received a hat trick from Kyle Whitlow and a pair of goals each from Conor Gately and Blaine Fleming. Midfielder Ryan McNamara added a lone marker, while Grant Preisler scored just the second goal of his career with 6:46 to play to give MU an 8-7 lead.

Goalie Jimmy Danaher made 10 big saves between the pipes for Marquette and defenseman B.J. Grill came up huge with a caused turnover with time winding down on Villanova's last offensive possession.

Johnny Galloway scored four goals for the Wildcats (5-4, 0-1 BIG EAST), who dropped their third consecutive game.

Villanova held the advantage in shots (42-26), ground balls (32-21) and won 11 more faceoffs than their counterparts from Milwaukee, but also turned the ball over four more times (15-11).