Colorado University Athletics
Colorado
10-6, 5-4MPSF
Oregon
10-7, 4-5MPSF
Buffs Beat Oregon Behind Strong Second Half
April 26, 2015 | Lacrosse
BOULDER – The skies had split and unleashed a torrent when the University of Colorado lacrosse team lined up against Oregon for the opening draw of its final regular season game. The rain pounded the field, drenched the fans and smeared the players' eye black.
Neither the Buffs nor the Ducks made it rain, though — they played a slow, defensive battle, and Colorado (10-6, 5-4 MPSF) emerged with an 8-6 victory after it scored five goals in the second half and shut down Oregon's attack.
“We're excited about the win,” Colorado coach Ann Elliott said. “I think it was big for us. We wanted to end our regular season on a big note and a strong note going into the conference tournament.”
Buffs midfielder Darby Kiernan led all scorers with four goals, and Colorado also got tallies from middies Marie Moore, Blair Sisk and Tori Link, and from attacker Johnna Fusco.
Attacker Courtney Valdez scored a hat trick for Oregon. Middies Olivia Pyne and Bella Pyne, and attacker Cambi Cucka netted one goal each, but the Ducks' offense was nonexistent for long stretches of the game.
Fusco controlled the opening draw and charged through the deluge into Oregon's zone. Her speed put the Ducks on their heels, and the Buffs pinged the ball around until Oregon (10-7, 4-5 MPSF) conceded Moore a free-position shot. She converted, and Colorado led barely a minute in.
Then Valdez took over for the Ducks — she scored her first goal, unassisted, when she knifed up the middle of the Buffs' defense and snuck one past Colorado goalie Paige Soenksen. Two minutes later she scored again, this time off of a feed from Bella Pyle.
Then, no one scored for nearly 10 minutes. The rain made the turf at Kittredge Field slick and slippery; at times the players looked like they were running on hardwood in their socks. Stopping was hard, cutting was harder, scoring was nigh-impossible. Still, the Buffs closed the gap despite the inclement conditions.
“Coach tells us that the other team is playing under the same circumstances so we need to be that much faster in these conditions,” Fusco said.
Fusco is one of Colorado's most lethal offensive players, and every time she touched the ball near Oregon's goal she was marked by two or three Ducks. They frustrated her for much of the first half; she didn't get a decent look at goal until she clanged a free-position shot off the post.
“We've prepared all season with different kinds of defenses so I think it's just moving the ball a little quicker and moving in and out to make them work just as hard as we're working,” Fusco said.
She finally found net two minutes before halftime, when she deked Oregon goalie Jenna Morris on a free-position shot and fired one past her stick. That cut the Buffs' deficit to 4-3 at halftime.
Kiernan equalized for Colorado a minute into the second half, and then Link and Cukar quickly scored to make it a 5-5 game. It was then that Soenksen and the Buffs' defense took over.
The Ducks barely had possession in Colorado's offensive zone, and when they did Soenksen was unbeatable. She saved shots in every conceivable way — she trapped low shots with her stick, covered them like a hockey goalie trying to force a face-off, and once caught a bouncing ball in off her hand.
“The reason I have so much success is because of the defense,” Soenksen said. “They forced low angle shots and bad angles and get a stick on the ball which cause it to go over the goal or it's easier for me to save.”
The whole time, volunteer assistant coach Mitch Fenton, who won a national championship last season as the goalie for Colorado men's club lacrosse, shouted her on from the sidelines.
“Take your time, Paige!”
“Make them play you!”
After Cukar's goal made it 5-5, the Buffs scored three straight — a free-position shot from Sisk and two straight from Kiernan. Kiernan's final goal came off of a feed from attacker Carly Cox; it was her 19th assist of the season, which set a school record.
Colorado didn't look back, and it didn't need to. The downpour abated, then resumed, and inundated Oregon's chances. The Ducks could do nothing until Valdez got a free-position shot past Soenksen with four seconds left. By then it was too late.
With the win, Colorado is the fourth seed in next week's Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament, which will be played at the University of Denver. The Buffs take on San Diego State on Thursday, April 30 at 7 p.m. MDT in the first round.
“I think it's exciting for us to grow from the beginning of the year to the end and now we just have to go out one game at a time,” Elliott said. “We know our backs are against the wall; if we lose, we go home and that's our season. We want to keep playing as long as we can.”
