Colorado University Athletics
Brooks: Moore, Buffs Geared Up For MPSF Tournament
April 30, 2015 | Lacrosse, B.G. Brooks
BOULDER - At 2 years old, the University of Colorado lacrosse program is still in its infancy. But like most infants, this Buffs team is capable of making some noise, which it did in a recently completed regular season. They'll try to crank the volume even higher in this weekend's MPSF Tournament.
Coach Ann Elliott, her staff and players enter Thursday's quarterfinal bout (7 p.m.) against San Diego State at DU's Peter Barton Stadium with a pretty good, confidence-building month behind them. Going 5-3 thus far in April, the Buffs won four of their last five, including two straight at home last weekend to solidify their position in the MPSF field as the No. 4 seed.
SDSU (9-7, 5-4) is seeded No. 5, with CU (10-6, 5-4) receiving the higher seed by virtue of its 7-6 win in mid-April in San Diego. The one-goal decision was close to being an instant replay for the Buffs and Aztecs; each of their three meetings - including an opening game in last spring's MPSF Tournament - has been decided by one goal. CU has won all three.
"It's going to be a tough, 60-minute game, but hopefully (Thursday) turns out the same way," said Buffs midfielder Marie Moore. "They're a good team but hopefully we can be successful."
Part of the Buffs' April success is traceable to Moore, a sophomore from Brick, N.J. In wins last weekend against Fresno State (16-7) and Oregon (8-6) she accounted for four goals, 13 draw controls, eight ground balls and forced six turnovers. The MPSF noticed her numbers, naming her the conference offensive player of the week.
"She does everything for us, she believes in doing the little things and working hard," Elliott said. "She takes the draw (and) as a midfielder she plays defense and has to line up against some of the top midfielders on other teams and that's what she wants to do. She would rather do that than go down and score a goal, but at the same time we expect her to produce offensively.
"At the end of the season she really started to come alive and have more success offensively. Overall she's just been a tremendous player. We're fortunate to have her on our team. She's been a fun player to watch develop over the past two years."
As a whole, Elliott's Buffs have been on an upward trajectory in their two seasons of existence. Elliott's two-season record is 21-14 (11-7 MPSF), remarkable numbers considering she started the program from scratch and has by far the conference's youngest roster. The Buffs' youth and inexperience have shown at times this season, but Elliott isn't letting anyone lean on either as a crutch after a subpar performance.
Her focus entering Thursday night's play is on finishing games and improving overall consistency - specifically minute-by-minute consistency. For anyone wondering whether those traits might be earmarks of a young ream, Elliott offers this:
"You know, I told them the other day it has nothing to do with youth. I mean, sure, I think you could say it does and you can talk about experience but I think it has a lot to do with their mentality and overall toughness. We have to understand that things aren't going to be easy. Last year we had no expectations, so when things got difficult, it was just, 'Let's see if we can make it happen.'
"This year at times when things got difficult, they got down a little bit more instead of having that resilience and saying, 'Let's go out there and see what we can do.' A championship team has that mentality all of the time. They're not worried about what's happening, they're worried about what they're going to do to make something happen. I think we're getting back to that mentality."
There was no doubt the Buffs rediscovered it in final two regular-season games. Lose to Fresno State and Elliott and her team might not be prepping for the MPSF Tournament. Winning that game, said Elliott, "was the best sure to make it in, then we turn around and play Oregon on Sunday . . . those two games have helped us bounce back from our loss against Cal (12-10, April 19) and refocus and get back on track."
Added Moore: "The last four wins were really good for us, they motivated us and got us on track for the tournament. We had some hard losses at the beginning, but we bounced back and kept rolling."
Moore contends the Buffs' progress from year one to year two has been "incredible to see in all aspects -- offense, defense, in transition, just being more of a unit on the field. Yeah, it's really cool. And confidence-wise, I think last year obviously as freshmen our lack of experience hurt us. But I think this year, even with just one year under our belts we just have a little more confidence going into all these games."
Of course, the coach's eye is a bit more critical - but that's not to say Elliott hasn't seen progress. Her second team is deeper, faster and more athletic at various positions, "which has allowed us to compete at a higher level and with some of the teams that last year we had trouble with," she said. "We weren't able to stay in games. We still have to work on finishing games and our overall consistency, but our consistency within games has given us trouble.
"We have spurts where we've done really well, then spurts where we struggle and lose confidence too quickly . . . that's something we have to continue to work on and get our players to understand that it's not easy and not supposed to be easy. When things get difficult you can't lose confidence and you can't get away from doing the little things that have gotten you there and made you successful . . . I think that's something we did a lot better last weekend."
Coaches and players like to reside in the moment, but one of the pleasures in being with such a young team is found in the long term. Moore, a co-captain as a freshman and again this season, and most of her teammates will be together for two more years. They're can grow, improve at a similar pace, gain experience and reap the benefits.
"Yeah, that's one of the best parts about it," she said. "We have so much potential but so much further to go. I think that's really cool. We've grown a lot but obviously there's so much more you can do. Knowing we'll be together with this team for two more years is cool."
Moore says a large portion of her growth has come in taking the draw, which Elliott made a point of emphasis entering the season and is underscoring it for Thursday night's game. The Buffs are familiar with DU's stadium, having played there a couple of times last season. Elliott calls the field "different from ours - a little smaller.
"The draws are different and we'll practice that this week to get adjusted. It changes the game a little bit, changes the speed of it and obviously the draws, which is a huge part of the game in general and controlling the game. It shouldn't affect our kids too much at the end of the day . . . they just have to play hard and hopefully this year being a little bit faster, having a little bit more depth, we can use that to our advantage."
If the Buffs defeat the Aztecs for a fourth consecutive time, they advance to play top seed Stanford on Friday (4 p.m.) at Barton Stadium. It would be the same scenario as last spring, but hopefully with a different result. The Cardinal won 15-6 in last season's semifinals and have beaten the Buffs in all three of their meetings.
However, Stanford's regular-season win earlier this month in Boulder required a 16-14 shootout that had little in common with last year's CU losses.
But the Buffs are happy to still be playing and happier still that their only travel requirement is a 40-minute drive to Denver. "It's awesome to play (at DU) again and that we're so close," said Moore, who has been an All-MPSF second-team selection in each of her first two seasons. "A lot of these teams - like Oregon - are gone all week. Which is just crazy being out of school for that long.
"And playing under the lights will be nice for a change. It's a bigger stage and it's exciting for our program . . . it'll be fun."
Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU
