The worst start in the program’s history was, understandably, a frustrating one for the Colorado women’s lacrosse team.
The Buffaloes began the campaign by posting an 0-4 mark, but it wasn’t as if Colorado was getting buried. Two of those defeats were by one goal apiece. Two of them occurred against ranked foes.
After finally getting into the win column earlier this week at Ohio State, the Buffs continued to vent some of those early-season frustrations with the sort of performance expected of a club trying to return to the NCAA Tournament.
The Buffs opened Pac-12 Conference play in impressive fashion on Friday by defeating No. 21 Stanford 17-15 at Kittredge Field. It was the second consecutive home win for Colorado against the Cardinal. CU came alive with a big second quarter to give head coach Ann Elliott Whidden her 100th victory.
The only coach in the 10-year history of the CU women’s lacrosse program, Elliott Whidden improved to 100-57 while the Buffs improved to 2-4 overall.
“For this team coming in 1-4, and knowing we’re starting conference play, how important it is for us to be 1-0 [in conference] is more important than everything,” Whidden said.
It was a balanced effort the Buffs, with eight different players scoring goals.
Stanford jumped to a 4-1 lead, but CU closed the first quarter with a pair of goals from Sam McGee before scoring the first four goals of the second quarter.
The match was tied 8-8 at halftime, and Stanford inched ahead 14-13 going into the fourth quarter. But the Buffs took control with the first four points of the final frame, again with two more goals from McGee, who finished with five goals.
Charlie Rudy and Morgan Pence both recorded three goals and two assists, while Ashley Stokes added a pair of goals with two assists. CU goalie Grace Donnelly finished with 11 saves.
CU will look to keep the momentum rolling on Sunday with a Pac-12 home match against California (noon, Pac-12 Mountain).
“We made a couple of decisions that I think cost us a little bit. A play here, a play there, a few too many turnovers, so we know we have to clean things up,” Whidden said. “Overall though, we were down by three goals or so a couple of times, and we were able to respond as a team out of those moments and get ourselves back in the game. At the end of the day, our players on offense and defense made the little plays that turned into big plays, and that’s huge for us.
“This was obviously a tough game. So, our players will have to rest and recover obviously, and we need to get mentally prepared for Cal because we might not be able to do it as much physically. For us now, it’s the only thing that matters. The biggest thing is that all these games in the conference count equally. They all count equally when you’re 2-4 as well. So we’ve got to keep digging ourselves out of this hole.”
Colorado 17, No. 21 Stanford 15
St 4 4 6 1 — 15
CU 3 5 5 4 — 17
Goals — Stanford: Humphrey 4, Jaques 3, Gilbert 2, Kelly 2, Frist 2, Browne, Miller. Colorado: McGee 5, Rudy 3, Pence 3, Stokes 2, Phillips, McElhaney, Carson, Assini.
Assists — Stanford: Humphrey 5, Griffith, Jaques, Frist. Colorado: Rudy 2, Stokes 2, Pence 2, Phillips.
Goalies (Min.-goals allowed-saves) — Stanford: Rahaim (47-15-5); Pearson (13-2-5). Colorado: Donnelly (60-15-11).
