Colorado University Athletics
Photo by: Asher Vandevort
Buffs Wrap Up Fall Season, Look Forward To Breakout Spring Season
November 29, 2016 | Lacrosse
BOULDER – Colorado's lacrosse team completed its fall season last month and has transitioned into offseason workouts in November. After a successful slate of competition this fall and coming off a solid third year of the program, the Buffaloes have high hopes for the spring of 2017.
"We got to play some great teams [this fall]," head coach Ann Elliott said. "[We hosted] Denver, and in Chicago, [we played] Northwestern, Marquette, and then Michigan. We got to play a lot with the new rules. I think what we saw is we have a lot of potential, but we also have a long way to go and we have to continue to get better every day as a team.
"Our trip to Chicago was very beneficial. We saw some of the things we can do well in terms of our speed and athleticism. Our defenders are being able to be more of a threat in transition, especially as we have a 90-second shot clock now. We also saw some of that speed, athleticism, and pushing the pace causes us issues. We have to learn to be more patient and controlled."
The 2016 season finished with the Buffs narrowly missing their first NCAA Tournament appearance, putting together a 13-5 record, including a 7-2 mark in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. It was a season of many highlights, including one of the biggest wins in the program's short history, a 15-14 overtime edging of James Madison, which qualified for the NCAA Tournament. The Buffs also defeated every team on its schedule that was not nationally-ranked.
But it was also a season of frustrations as CU was one of the first teams left out of the NCAA Tournament selection. And the 7-2 mark in conference play meant a third-place finish in the MPSF. Those two conference losses were by a combined three goals to 12th-ranked Stanford and seventh-ranked Southern California. The USC loss particularly stung as CU had the game-winning goal waived off in the final minute due to a dangerous follow-through call and the Trojans marched right back down the field to score the go-ahead goal with 16 seconds left.
In 2017 the Buffs are looking to take another step forward in their young program and reach the NCAA Tournament. It will also be the last year CU is in the MPSF as women's lacrosse will be added as a Pac-12 sport in 2018, and a conference championship in the final year of the conference would be a nice accomplishment.
"Being able to win a conference championship is incredible especially when you have such great teams in it across the board," Elliott said. "It's going to be competitive this year so that would be really exciting for us [to win the championship]. We know that it's one day at a time to get yourself in a position to win a conference championship. We have to do something we haven't done in my time here and that is compete better in our regular season in the conference and try to finish in the first or second spot to give ourselves the best opportunity we have going [to the postseason]. Our focus will be on one game at a time, knowing every single one plays a factor in that"
The first senior in Colorado lacrosse history, Sarah Lautman, graduated last year. But the first full senior class is poised for a big 2017 season. Lautman is the only starter that doesn't return from last year's squad and Elliott has added an athletic freshman class.
"I think that [experience] has shown this fall in terms of being able to hit the ground running and really build on things from last year and to continue to push them to get better and focus on a lot of the little things we need to in the fall that we're hopefully able to build off in the spring," Elliott said. "But we still have a long way to go."
As touched on briefly above, the ever-evolving game of women's lacrosse features more rules changes in 2017. Last year the big change was adding self-starts off of fouls. This year it will be the 90-second shot clock.
"I think the new rules last year, which was the self-starts, really increase the [pace of] play," Elliott said. "And now adding a 90-second shot clock will increase the play across the board and show how important it is to have athleticism and speed in the midfield so you can get the ball down on attack, have good possessions, and work down the clock. We're excited; we're a team that likes to play fast and we have to work on playing controlled in there, understanding the game...Because we like to play fast and we have that speed and athleticism, the 90 seconds doesn't change too much of what we're doing, but I also think you can't tell until you get to the spring and play a real game."
This season's schedule also ramps up. The Buffs non-conference portion features four teams that finished the 2016 season ranked in the top 20, while continuing to play USC and Stanford in the MPSF, both teams that finished in the top 10 last season. Colorado opens the season at home against Northwestern on Feb. 12. The Wildcats ended last year ranked 12th. In addition to Northwestern, CU faces No. 4 Penn State, No. 8 Stony Brook and No. 13 UMass in non-conference play. Penn State was a Final Four team a year ago.
"We're excited about Year 4 [of the program] and we're excited about where we are at, but we know we have a lot of work," Elliott said. "We're playing a lot of great teams this year out of conference that we hope will help us as we look towards trying to make the NCAA championships and trying to be prepared and do well in our conference itself. Being able to add teams like [UMass], Penn State, Delaware, and Stony Brook on top of continuing to play Northwestern are incredible opportunities for us that are going to make us better."
"We got to play some great teams [this fall]," head coach Ann Elliott said. "[We hosted] Denver, and in Chicago, [we played] Northwestern, Marquette, and then Michigan. We got to play a lot with the new rules. I think what we saw is we have a lot of potential, but we also have a long way to go and we have to continue to get better every day as a team.
"Our trip to Chicago was very beneficial. We saw some of the things we can do well in terms of our speed and athleticism. Our defenders are being able to be more of a threat in transition, especially as we have a 90-second shot clock now. We also saw some of that speed, athleticism, and pushing the pace causes us issues. We have to learn to be more patient and controlled."
The 2016 season finished with the Buffs narrowly missing their first NCAA Tournament appearance, putting together a 13-5 record, including a 7-2 mark in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. It was a season of many highlights, including one of the biggest wins in the program's short history, a 15-14 overtime edging of James Madison, which qualified for the NCAA Tournament. The Buffs also defeated every team on its schedule that was not nationally-ranked.
But it was also a season of frustrations as CU was one of the first teams left out of the NCAA Tournament selection. And the 7-2 mark in conference play meant a third-place finish in the MPSF. Those two conference losses were by a combined three goals to 12th-ranked Stanford and seventh-ranked Southern California. The USC loss particularly stung as CU had the game-winning goal waived off in the final minute due to a dangerous follow-through call and the Trojans marched right back down the field to score the go-ahead goal with 16 seconds left.
In 2017 the Buffs are looking to take another step forward in their young program and reach the NCAA Tournament. It will also be the last year CU is in the MPSF as women's lacrosse will be added as a Pac-12 sport in 2018, and a conference championship in the final year of the conference would be a nice accomplishment.
"Being able to win a conference championship is incredible especially when you have such great teams in it across the board," Elliott said. "It's going to be competitive this year so that would be really exciting for us [to win the championship]. We know that it's one day at a time to get yourself in a position to win a conference championship. We have to do something we haven't done in my time here and that is compete better in our regular season in the conference and try to finish in the first or second spot to give ourselves the best opportunity we have going [to the postseason]. Our focus will be on one game at a time, knowing every single one plays a factor in that"
The first senior in Colorado lacrosse history, Sarah Lautman, graduated last year. But the first full senior class is poised for a big 2017 season. Lautman is the only starter that doesn't return from last year's squad and Elliott has added an athletic freshman class.
"I think that [experience] has shown this fall in terms of being able to hit the ground running and really build on things from last year and to continue to push them to get better and focus on a lot of the little things we need to in the fall that we're hopefully able to build off in the spring," Elliott said. "But we still have a long way to go."
As touched on briefly above, the ever-evolving game of women's lacrosse features more rules changes in 2017. Last year the big change was adding self-starts off of fouls. This year it will be the 90-second shot clock.
"I think the new rules last year, which was the self-starts, really increase the [pace of] play," Elliott said. "And now adding a 90-second shot clock will increase the play across the board and show how important it is to have athleticism and speed in the midfield so you can get the ball down on attack, have good possessions, and work down the clock. We're excited; we're a team that likes to play fast and we have to work on playing controlled in there, understanding the game...Because we like to play fast and we have that speed and athleticism, the 90 seconds doesn't change too much of what we're doing, but I also think you can't tell until you get to the spring and play a real game."
This season's schedule also ramps up. The Buffs non-conference portion features four teams that finished the 2016 season ranked in the top 20, while continuing to play USC and Stanford in the MPSF, both teams that finished in the top 10 last season. Colorado opens the season at home against Northwestern on Feb. 12. The Wildcats ended last year ranked 12th. In addition to Northwestern, CU faces No. 4 Penn State, No. 8 Stony Brook and No. 13 UMass in non-conference play. Penn State was a Final Four team a year ago.
"We're excited about Year 4 [of the program] and we're excited about where we are at, but we know we have a lot of work," Elliott said. "We're playing a lot of great teams this year out of conference that we hope will help us as we look towards trying to make the NCAA championships and trying to be prepared and do well in our conference itself. Being able to add teams like [UMass], Penn State, Delaware, and Stony Brook on top of continuing to play Northwestern are incredible opportunities for us that are going to make us better."
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