No. 23 Buffs Hold Off Feisty Sun Devils

TEMPE, Ariz. – The Arizona State Sun Devils went toe-to-toe with the University of Colorado lacrosse team for the first 37 minutes of the contest on Sunday afternoon, but could not keep up with the Buffs who scored seven straight goals en route to a 13-7 victory at Sun Devil Soccer Stadium.

"We needed everyone to do their role and we didn't have that today across the board," head coach Ann Elliott Whidden said. "I am proud that we responded a little better in second half. We made plays we needed to and got the win. But we have to be more consistent as a team."

Senior Miranda Stinson recorded seven points in the game, six of those being goals. Three other Buffs, Samantha Nemirov, Sadie Grozier and Liz Phillips, each had two goals in the win. Charlie Rudy had the other goal for the Buffs.

With the win, the Buffs earned a weekend sweep of Pac-12 Conference opponents as they took down 14^th ranked Southern California, 9-8, on Friday. CU is 6-1 in league play (7-5 overall), while ASU is currently 2-7 in the Pac-12 (4-9 overall).

"We will regroup and get refocused," Whidden said. "We have another big weekend of conference play next weekend. We are happy to be 2-0 this weekend, but we know we need to keep getting better as a team. And we know all that matters is what we do next."

WHAT HAPPENED: Arizona State scored the first two markers of the game in the first four minutes. After seven scoreless minutes of play, the Buffs finally got on the board with a goal by Rudy at 19:24, but the Sun Devils went back up by two with a goal by Kylie Kroeger at 14:20.

The Buffs were not going to let ASU go as Stinson recorded back-to-back goals at 10:57 and 9:22 to even the game at 3-3. The Sun Devils went ahead again at 6:56, but Stinson scored her third of the game with 2:00 left in the half to tie the contest up for the second time.

The game was tied at halftime, and just like in the first half, the Sun Devils were the first to strike, scoring at 27:33. Stinson tied the game up again at 25:54 with her fourth of the day and just over two minutes later, the Buffs would get the go-ahead goal from Grozier off a great pass from Stinson.

But ASU was not going to let the Buffs go so easily and charged down the field after winning the draw, scoring just 19 seconds after Grozier (6-6).

After that Sun Devils' goal, the Buffs offensive opened up, scoring three straight markers (Nemirov, Stinson and Grozier) in the span of two minutes, putting CU up 9-6 with 18:22 left in the game. About six minutes later, Phillips scored her third career goal off the feed from Jen Mistretta.

CU continued to push and Stinson was able to get her sixth marker of the afternoon at 11:55, which was the 200^th point in her career. She is now one of three Buffs to record 200 points, the others being Darby Kiernan (287) and Johnna Fusco (218).

The Buffs did not let up and Nemirov tallied her second of the day with just under four minutes to play. Phillips recorded her first multi-goal game of her career with her second goal with 2:01 left to play.

KEY STATISTIC: The game was tied 6-6 in the second half when the Buffs scored seven straight goals. CU's defense held the Sun Devils scoreless for almost 23 minutes. ASU scored its sixth goal of the game at 23:01 and was denied until there were just 23 seconds left to play.

NOTABLE:

Samantha Nemirov extended her school record point scoring-streak to 32 games
This is the eighth time this season Miranda Stinson has scored at least three goals in a game
CU is 5-0 on the road this season
The Buffs lead the series against ASU 4-0

TEAM LEADERS:

Colorado

Points: 15

Goals: 13

Assists: 2

Draw Controls: 10

Ground Balls: 25

Saves: 7

Arizona State

Points: 13

Goals: 7

Assists: 6

Draw Controls: 12

Ground Balls: 17

Saves: 11

UP NEXT: Colorado heads back to Boulder for a pair of contests. The Buffs will face Stanford on Friday, April 12, and California on Sunday, April 14.

QUOTEABLE:
Head Coach Ann Elliott Whidden
Not a great game for us. Credit to ASU they came out with energy and purpose, we did not. We know how important each game is for us, and each conference game, so I was disappointed with our play and effort overall.

We needed everyone to do their role and we didn't have that today across the board. I am proud that we responded a little better in second half. We made plays we needed to and got the win. But we have to be more consistent as a team.

We will regroup and get refocused. We have another big weekend of conference play next weekend. We are happy to be 2-0 this weekend, but we know we need to keep getting better as a team. And we know all that matters is what we do next.

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Team Stats

Miranda Stinson

Sadie Grozier

Samantha Nemirov

Liz Phillips

Players Mentioned

Johnna Fusco

Sadie Grozier

Darby Kiernan

Jen Mistretta

Samantha Nemirov

Liz Phillips

Charlie Rudy

Miranda Stinson

Players Mentioned

Johnna Fusco

Sadie Grozier

Darby Kiernan

Jen Mistretta

Samantha Nemirov

Liz Phillips

Charlie Rudy

Miranda Stinson