Colorado University Athletics
Buffs Lacrosse Seeks First NCAA Win Friday Vs. Jacksonville
May 08, 2018 | Lacrosse, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — Now in its fifth year of existence, the Colorado women's lacrosse program has made solid, steady improvement every year.
Last year, Ann Elliott's Buffs earned their first NCAA Tournament berth, but lost to UMass in the opening round.
This year, the Buffs claimed their first regular season conference title, posting a 9-1 record en route to winning the Pac-12.
This week, they have a chance to add the program's first-ever NCAA Tournament win. The opportunity comes Friday when 15th-ranked Colorado faces Jacksonville at 2 p.m. in Gainesville, Fla. The winner faces Florida at 10 a.m. Sunday in the second round.
The game will be live streamed on the University of Florida's YouTube channel.
"(A win) would be amazing," said CU senior defender Sarah Brown. "It was definitely unfortunate last year. It was amazing to have CU make it, but this year we're hungry. We're ready to get that win."
The Buffs should no doubt be motivated, particularly in light of their most recent game, a 15-6 loss to Stanford in the Pac-12 tournament championship game in Boulder.
But a win won't be easy. Jacksonville won both the Atlantic Sun regular season and conference tournament title, and brings a 16-3 record into the game, along with an NCAA-best 18.47 goals-per-game average.
Still, these 13-5 Buffs have shown the ability to bounce back from a tough loss. After suffering a 10-8 defeat at Denver in late March, Colorado rebounded to win six straight games, including wins over USC, Stanford and Oregon.
"I think in general we're resilient and we've been through a lot," Elliott said. "This is a team that wants to keep fighting and keep getting better. Our message after our loss was obviously we can give up or we can keep fighting and hope that we get another opportunity. This team undoubtedly wanted to fight. We practiced really hard last week, focused on the little things, focused on just competing and outworking people on the field."
Indeed, even though the Buffs weren't guaranteed of an NCAA berth until the bracket was announced Sunday, they spent the previous week practicing as if they were going to play.
Now, they hope to use the loss to Stanford — a team they beat twice in the regular season — as motivation moving forward.
"We definitely don't want that to happen again," said CU senior Darby Kiernan, the Buffs leading scorer this year with 86 points (61 goals, 25 assists). "We definitely have a chip on our shoulder right now. We want to have a good showing against Jacksonville."
Kiernan and Brown are part of a senior class that signed with Elliott and the Buffs when the program was still in its infancy. They have both played major roles in elevating it to a top 20 program — and they aren't ready yet to call it a career.
Instead, they would like to add to their already considerable legacy
"It doesn't really even feel real that I'm graduating because lacrosse season is still going on," Brown said. "Then it will all hit me and it will probably be very emotional. So I would love to keep going on as long as possible."
Along with the knowledge that they bounced back from the loss to DU, the Buffs also believe they gained some valuable experience from last year's opening round loss in the NCAA Tournament.
"Playoffs are a completely different level," Brown said. "We need to come out stronger and harder and show everyone that we're supposed to be there. We can't take anything for granted."
While this will be only the second meeting between the two program in their histories — Jacksonville took a 20-13 win in CU's second game in program history in 2014 — the Buffs will be very familiar with the surroundings. Earlier this season, Colorado absorbed a 16-9 loss to Florida on the Gators' home field.
"Winning on Friday would be amazing," Kiernan said. "But we're trying to make it far and we just have to take it one game at a time. We want to win on Friday and play again on Sunday. it would be incredible to keep on going."
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
