Inaugural Pac-12 Champions

BOULDER – The Colorado Buffaloes became the first ever Pac-12 Women's Lacrosse regular season Champions on Friday afternoon as they recorded a 19-9 win over Oregon on senior day.

"It's really exciting," head coach Ann Elliott said. "We had goals to compete in the first Pac-12 season in both the regular season and the postseason. To come out here and to keep battling through a lot of emotions and to come out with a win was huge for us and we are happy about that."

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The No. 15 Buffs, who are in their fifth year as a varsity program, earned an impressive 9-1 mark in league play to clinch the regular season championship. They have also totaled a 12-4 overall mark as they head into the postseason.

"It is really exciting," senior Darby Kiernan said. "I mean we are all really, really excited and super pumped about it. It just feels good to get this win at our last game at Kittredge."

Kiernan and junior Miranda Stinson combined for 10 goals in the win. Kiernan tallied six goals and three assists, while Stinson had four goals and one assist.

WHAT HAPPENED: The game started very back-and-fourth. Oregon (8-8, 4-6 Pac-12) scored the first two markers of the game before Sarah Brown recorded her fourth goal of the season to get the Buffs on the board. The Ducks recorded another to take a 3-1 lead, but then the Buffs went on a 3-0 run with a goal from Kiernan and a pair from Stinson for their first lead of the game (4-3).

At that point, the Ducks called a timeout, and after it, came out and scored quickly to even the game at 4-4. Sadie Grozier put the Buffs back in the lead less than a minute later. The two sides continued to battle and UO knotted the game up again (5-5).

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At that point, the Buffs strung together another 5-0 run with goals from Stinson, Kiernan (two), Sophie Castillo and Samantha Nemirov to go up 10-5. The Ducks ended that run with 7:16 left on the clock when Mariah Gattie found the back of the net, but CU went back up by five a short time later with Kiernan's fourth goal of the contest (11-6).

Oregon scored the first goal of the second half, just 55 seconds into the frame, but the Buffs answered with Kiernan's fifth of the contest at 27:31. The Ducks responded with a quick goal just a minute later to bring them within four (12-8).

Carly Cox earned her marker of the game at 22:01 after a pass from Kiernan, and then Stinson recorded her fourth of the day at 17:54 to give the Buffs a nice 14-8 advantage.

CU scored the next goal after Oregon had a turnover at midfield. Brown picked up the ball and raced down field. She connected with Cox, who was right in front of the net, and just like that, the Buffs led 15-8.

Colorado recorded three more goals to push the lead to 18-8 with 3:49 left in the game. Gattie scored for the Ducks at 1:53 to stop the running clock, but the Buffs had the final goal of the game as fifth-year season Tori Link tallied her first of the season to give CU the 19-9 victory.

NOTABLE:

Two Buffs have scored at least one point in every game this season: Samantha Nemirov and Darby Kiernan.
Kiernan broke her single season goals record, which was 52. She ended the game with 57 career goals.
Julia Lisella made six saves in the game, four in the first half and two in the second.
Sophia Gambitsky came into the game with 5:57 remaining and made one save on senior day.
The Buffs celebrated their seniors, as well as Julia Sarcona, who would have graduated this spring with her teammates.
CU has never lost to the Ducks. The Buffs have won all six meetings.
This was the final game of the season at Kittredge Field, as the Pac-12 Tournament will be played at Prentup Field.
The Buffs have now won 17 straight games at Kittredge Field, dating back to the 2016 season. The last time CU lost at Kitt was to USC (9-8) on April 8, 2016.
In total, CU has won 18 home games in that span as the Buffs also hosted Oregon on March 19, 2017, in the Indoor Practice Facility.
The 18 home wins is the ninth best home win streak in NCAA history.

TEAM LEADERS:

*Colorado*	*Oregon*
Points: 25	Points: 16
Goals: 19	Goals: 9
Assists: 6	Assists: 7
Draw Controls: 14	Draw Controls: 15
Ground Balls: 24	Ground Balls: 12
Saves: 7	Saves: 14

UP NEXT: Colorado will host the inaugural Pac-12 Championships at Prentup Field in Boulder, April 26-29.

QUOTES:
Head Coach Ann Elliott
On Winning The Pac-12 Regular Season Title:
"It's really exciting. We had goals to compete in the first Pac-12 season, in both the regular season and the postseason. To come out here and to keep battling through a lot of emotions and to come out with a win was huge for us and we are happy about that."

On The Team's Slow Start and How They Were Able To Turn It Around:
"Obviously today was a huge game for us, and we knew the importance of it and we were excited for the chance to play for the outright regular season Pac-12 title, but at the same time there were a lot of emotions and a lot of outside factors. We tried to control what we could control, and despite a slow start, we kept playing and kept battling and we made some plays."

On Playing the Pac-12 Tournament At Home:
"It is exciting. Today was the last game of the regular season, and now it is a clean slate. It is one game at a time. Nothing for us is guaranteed. We are at home and I think we like playing at home and are comfortable at home, but at the same time, everybody is fighting for one more day. We know it is going to be a battle, and we learned that last year in the NCAA Tournament real quick, and we will take that into this year."

Junior Miranda Stinson
What does it mean to win regular season title?
"I mean it means everything. This season did not start out the way we wanted it. We just wanted to rally and do it for these seniors and for Julia's (Sarcona) family and for ourselves."

About the slow start
"Yeah I think we came out with some emotions. After the timeout we gathered ourselves and focused."

On Senior Class
"This senior class is great. I mean we have got pivotal players, but they are also just bunch of great personalities that have led us to this point."

Advantage of having tournament in Boulder
"We love playing at home. I mean clearly we have not lost at home this season, knock on wood. We love playing in Boulder. We love having our crowd here and I think it's going to be great for us."

Senior Darby Kiernan
What does it mean to be here and have regular season title?
"It is really exciting. I mean we are all really, really excited and super pumped about it. I mean it just feels good to get this win at our last game at Kittredge."

Slow start, but turned it around
"We just pulled it in together and picked up the energy; we just knew we had to focus on the little things. We had to work hard all around and in the end we were able to come up with the win. We just worked so hard for this and worked really hard today. It's just amazing."

Next Event

Team Stats

Darby Kiernan

Miranda Stinson

Sophie Castillo

Carly Cox

Players Mentioned

Sarah Brown

Carly Cox

Sophia Gambitsky

Sadie Grozier

Darby Kiernan

Tori Link

Julia Lisella

Samantha Nemirov

Julia Sarcona

Miranda Stinson

Players Mentioned

Sarah Brown

Carly Cox

Sophia Gambitsky

Sadie Grozier

Darby Kiernan

Tori Link

Julia Lisella

Samantha Nemirov

Julia Sarcona

Miranda Stinson