Champ Buffs Set To Host First-Ever Pac-12 Women's Lacrosse Tournament

BOULDER — With a 12-4 overall record, a regular season Pac-12 championship and a top-14 ranking in all three national polls, the Colorado women's lacrosse team has already put together a very nice season.

But truth is, none of those numbers guarantee much of anything this time of year.

In fact, the only guarantee for Ann Elliott's Buffs today is this: they have at least one more game, Friday's Pac-12 tournament semifinal matchup against the winner of Thursday's Oregon-Cal game.

If they win, they play again Sunday for the championship.

If not …

That's not something the Buffs are contemplating today.

"This is a new season for us," Elliott said Tuesday morning. "We did some good things in the regular season, but truth is, nobody cares. Right now, it's one game, and everybody's playing to have one more day, one more practice, one more game. What we're trying to do is maintain that mentality, not let anything little slip by, and control what we can control. We just want to take advantage of every day and understand that we have to put everything into every day and work hard. We're looking toward Friday and doing everything we can to win that game."

The winner of this week's Pac-12 tournament at Prentup Field earns the conference's guaranteed berth in the NCAA Tournament. But truth is, with the kind of season Colorado has produced thus far, it is a good bet the Buffs would pick up an at-large berth even if they don't win the tournament.

Still, that's not a chance the Buffs want to take.

"I think last year we learned a hard lesson of getting distracted by things," Elliott said of a season that saw CU earn an at-large NCAA bid but lose in the first round. "This year it's not going to happen. We have to be focused on what we're doing now and being ready for that opportunity. We have to realize everybody else has that mentality too. It's their only game guaranteed, too. We have to come in hard, regardless of what has happened earlier this season."

No matter who the Buffs play in Friday's 1 p.m. semifinal, it will be a team the Buffs beat twice this year en route to a 9-1 conference record. Colorado's only league loss came in overtime at USC, a loss CU later avenged with a 10-7 win in Boulder. That win was also the beginning of the Buffs' current five-game win streak, their longest of the season.

That late-season win streak is already one way this season is different from 2017.

A year ago, the Buffs jumped out to an 11-0 start, but then won just five of nine down the stretch. This year, the Buffs lost two of their first three — both against ranked teams — but have slowly and steadily improved.

Now, Elliott believes the best is yet to come.

"This season has been really challenging for us in a lot of different ways," Elliott said. "As much as you want to eliminate outside factors, there are always outside factors. But we've met those challenges and I don't think we've put everything all together yet, and to me, that's exciting. I think we can continue to get better. I think our players believe that, too, which makes practice more intense and competitive. That's an exciting feeling."

Not that the Buffs haven't been outstanding already. Led by senior Darby Kiernan, the Pac-12's leading scorer (13th in the nation), CU has been solid on both ends of the field. The Buffs are 24th in the nation and second in the Pac-12 on offense, and they lead the Pac-12 (13th in the nation) in scoring defense.

Kiernan leads CU in goals (57) and assists (24), but balance has been the key to CU's attack. Colorado has four players with at least 25 goals, as Kiernan is joined by Miranda Stinson (50), Samantha Nemirov (32) and Carly Cox (25).

Meanwhile, with the help of a veteran defense in front of her, redshirt sophomore goaltender Julia Lisella is fourth in the nation in goals-against average, giving up just 8.25 per game.

In short, Elliott has made all the right moves in the fifth year of the program, one she has built from infancy to a regular top-25 team.

Still, it has been a season of challenges no coach could have expected. Before the season even began, the Buffs had to deal with tragedy when teammate Julia Sarcona was killed in an automobile accident.

There is no roadmap, no manual for dealing with such an emotional event.

"When you start, a season, you have a plan for the way things are going to go and then you have things happen outside that change so much," Elliott said. "When that happens, you don't know how a person is going to respond — even a player like Darby. But she's done a great job of being in control of what she can control, and it's that way for that entire (senior) class, Darby, Sarah Brown, Kelsie Garrison, Carly Cox. They start every game and have done an incredible job of being able to focus when they need to focus as well as deal with a lot of emotions. We didn't know how we were going to be three months out from losing Julia — but they've been able to figure it out and that's been really key."

Now, the Buffs are in position to stretch their season out for several more weeks, but they also know they can't look too far into the future.

"Whoever we play, it's going to be the third time we play them," Elliott said. "That means they know us well. They know what we're good at and they know our weaknesses. For us, it's an opportunity to focus on that and try to get better in those things, knowing that whoever we play is going to come after our weaknesses. I think that's helping us maintain that focus of pushing ourselves to be better, pushing ourselves in practice, pushing each other — and also reminding ourselves of last year."

The game between No. 4 seed Oregon and No. 5 Cal is set for 1 p.m. Thursday at Prentup Field. The second game of the day will pit No. 3 USC against No. 6 Arizona State at 4 p.m.

Colorado will then meet the Cal-Oregon winner at 1 p.m. Friday, with Stanford to take on the USC-ASU winner at 4 p.m. Friday.

Sunday's championship is set for noon.

Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu