Buffs Hand Oregon First MPSF Loss Of the Season

BOULDER — Just hours before the Colorado women's lacrosse team was about to take Kittredge Field, a wildfire and poor air conditions forced administration to move the game inside to the C.R. "Dick" Stevenson Family Indoor Practice Facility.

But the moved paid off and the Buffaloes improved to 9-0 this season with a 16-11 victory over the Oregon Ducks (6-3, 3-1 MPSF) on Sunday afternoon.

Colorado, which is ranked fourth in the Inside Lacrosse media poll and seventh in the IWLCA Coaches Poll, recorded its second conference win and handed the Ducks their first conference loss of the season.

Junior Carly Cox recorded a career-best five goals in the win and senior Paige Soenksen picked up another win to improve to 8-0 this season in goal with eight saves on the day.

WHAT HAPPENED: Colorado scored four straight goals, including three from Cox and one by sophomore Miranda Stinson, to open the game before Oregon took a timeout with 16:14 left in the first half. The Buffs kept the goals coming as senior Cali Castagnola recorded her first marker of the day at 11:33 to bring the score to 5-0.

The Ducks got on the board a short time later, scoring their first goal with 10:22 left in the half. Junior Darby Kiernan answered for the Buffs with her first goal of the contest (6-1) before UO tallied a pair of consecutive goals to cut the Buffs lead to three (6-3). CU finished out the first half with another couple of goals from Cox and sophomore Samantha Nemirov to take an 8-3 lead into the second half.

The Buffs started strong in the second half as Stinson scored her second of the game with 29:25 remaining. Senior Katie Macleay tallied her first goal of the contest just over two minutes later (27:20) to put CU up 10-3.

Oregon responded with a free-position goal at 24:18, but Colorado answered with goals from Kiernan and Castagnola (12-4). The Buffs seemed to be in position to pull away, but then the Ducks put together a 7-3 run to cut CU's advantage to 15-11 with just over two minutes to play in the game.

Cox finished the scoring for both teams with 1:25 remaining and the Buffs were able to hang on to win 16-11 to stay perfect on the season.

CU's defense again make some great plays, causing 10 of Oregon 17's turnovers. Junior Sarah Brown led the Buffs with four of those and junior Kelsie Garrison added two caused turnovers. Colorado also cleared on 16-of-17 tries, while Oregon cleared 18-of-22 attempts.

KEY STATISTICS: Colorado out-shot the Ducks 33-24, which included a 16-9 edge in the first half. CU also had the edge in draw controls (19-10). Kiernan recorded seven of those, while senior Marie Moore came up with five.

TEAM LEADERS:

Colorado
Points: 24
Goals: 16
Assists: 8
Draw Controls: 19
Ground Balls: 12
Saves: 8

Oregon
Points: 18
Goals: 11
Assists: 7
Draw Controls: 10
Ground Balls: 8
Saves: 12

NOTABLE:

This is the first time the Buffs have played a home contest inside the C.R. "Dick" Stevenson Family Indoor Practice Facility.
Darby Kiernan and Katie Macleay have scored at least one point in every game this season.
The 9-0 start to the season is the best in CU history, as well as the longest win streak in school history.
CU has also won nine straight home games dating back to last season.
This is the sixth time this season CU has posted 15 or more goals.

UP NEXT: Colorado will finish its home stand with a game against Fresno State on Saturday, March 25, at 12 p.m.

QUOTEABLE:
Head Coach Ann Elliott
"I think overall the biggest challenge is the size of the field is a little bit smaller width wise, but we have played in situations like this before. We have played indoors a couple times so by the end of the day everyone is facing the same thing and we just need to focus ourselves, go out there and play as hard as we can and continue to execute our game plan that we set fourth when we are outside."

"Oregon is a good team. They are very well coached and they play extremely hard. I think they are very good offensively and they are good when you play them well too. They are able to find small openings. We wanted to try to take control of the little things such as draw controls, ground balls and execute on offense and do our best on defense with our match ups and contain them one-on-one. I thought we did a decent job the first half. I think in the second half, and even in times in first half, we were sloppy. We turned the ball over catching and throwing and we didn't finish our shots, and at the end of the day it catches up to you."

"We have lots of different weapons and everyday it's someone else stepping up and we need that because we will face different defenses and different plans on defense. Obviously we have some injuries we are dealing with now so we need everyone to step up and make an impact in whatever their role and I think it is exciting for us to see."

"We have to look back and figure out how to get better today and that will be our focus as we move forward next week and start thinking about Fresno. We have to better ourselves first and figuring out what areas we can improve on so we can finish games stronger."

"Every conference game is so huge for us and it's important down the stretches as we hopefully make the conference tournament. We want to do the best we can to put us in a position to win. Every conference game matters and Oregon has been off to a great start in conference. They are a tough team so we are excited about the win but we know we need to get better and that will be our focus."

Carly Cox, Junior Attacker
"A little bit, the field is same length wise but it is a little shorter width wise. I think that is the only change or adjustment we had to make. We have had to practice in here before, so we are kind of use to it; the lights weren't really that big of an affect. I think that we handled switching fields and venues pretty well."

"I mean there was brief talk about it at breakfast just because it was such a big thing and that you could see smoke from our houses. Other than that, once we got to the locker room we knew that this was our main focus and that we needed to focus on this conference game. I think that we did that really well."

"I think that it really just gets the energy up and we can play off that as a team. So I think that accounts to the flood gates opening like you said."

"This is a huge win. We focus a lot on our conference games and really playing well in our conference. Oregon is a great team so we knew that it was going to be a tough battle. I think that we came out and played well."

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Team Stats

Carly Cox

Miranda Stinson

Darby Kiernan

Cali Castagnola

Players Mentioned

Sarah Brown

Cali Castagnola

Carly Cox

Kelsie Garrison

Darby Kiernan

Katie Macleay

Marie Moore

Samantha Nemirov

Paige Soenksen

Miranda Stinson

Players Mentioned

Sarah Brown

Cali Castagnola

Carly Cox

Kelsie Garrison

Darby Kiernan

Katie Macleay

Marie Moore

Samantha Nemirov

Paige Soenksen

Miranda Stinson