Colorado University Athletics
CU Lacrosse Travels To UC Davis And Stanford This Weekend
March 31, 2016 | Lacrosse
BOULDER - Colorado's lacrosse team will play two road games this weekend in California, taking on UC Davis and No. 12/10 Stanford. Friday's game at UC Davis will begin at 4 p.m. PT and Sunday's game at Stanford starts at noon PT.
The Buffaloes (7-2, 2-0 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) have won five of their past six games and their two losses this season have both come against top-10-ranked teams. CU is resuming conference action this weekend after seven straight non-conference games. The Buffs opened the year with MPSF wins against Denver and Fresno State before their non-conference break.
Goalkeeper Paige Soenksen was named MPSF Defensive Player of the Week on Monday and has an 8.07 goals-against average this year. She has started every game in goal in CU's three-year history. Cali Castagnola and Darby Kiernan lead the team with 20 goals scored each and Castagnola has a team-high seven assists. Defensively, Sarah Brown paces the team with 20 caused turnovers.
UC Davis (3-3, 1-0 MPSF) is coming off an 8-3 loss to Drexel, but earned a 19-7 win over Saint Mary's earlier this year for its only conference game. Taylor Cuenin leads the Aggies with 13 goals. UCD has been strong in the draw circle this season and is led by Shannon Geary's 22 draw controls. Lauren Ali has played every minute in goal this season and has led UCD to a 9.61 GAA.
Stanford (6-2, 1-0 MPSF) is ranked No. 12 in this week's coaches' poll and No. 10 in the media poll. The Cardinal lost to 14th-ranked Stony Brook last week, snapping a six-game winning streak. Stanford has wins against No. 8 Penn State, No. 16 Ohio State and No. 19 Johns Hopkins, while defeating Saint Mary's 20-1 in conference play. Four Cardinal players have 14 or more goals this year, led by Anna Salemo and Lucy Dikeou with 17 each. Allie DaCar is started each game in goal and has a .496 save percentage, ranking second in the MPSF in that category. The Cardinal is second in the nation in draw controls per game (15.0).
