Colorado University Athletics
With NCAA Experience In Hand, Buffs Gear For Tourney Opener Vs. Dartmouth
May 08, 2019 | Lacrosse, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — An NCAA Tournament bid is no longer a novelty for the Colorado women's lacrosse program.
Now headed to their third straight postseason appearance, the No. 21 Buffaloes not only know what it takes to get there, they have a good idea of what it takes to advance. Coach Ann Elliott Whidden's crew will have that goal in mind Friday when CU faces 18th-ranked Dartmouth in a 2 p.m. NCAA first-round game on the Boston College campus.
The winner will face top-ranked Boston College on Sunday in an 11 a.m. game.
"It's obviously really helpful," Whidden said of her team's NCAA experience. "One of the big challenges when you are young is understanding you don't need to do anything differently. You've gotten yourself here, you need to do everything you've been doing and you need to do it with the purpose of knowing there's nothing after this so you're not saving anything for later. Having the experience these guys have, they understand that."
After a one-and-done appearance in 2017 — their first NCAA appearance — the 10-7 Buffs advanced to the Sweet 16 last year with a first-round win over Jacksonville before falling to Florida.
This year, they earned another at-large bid after finishing second in the Pac-12 tournament, and will face another at-large team in 11-5 Dartmouth, which fell to Penn in the Ivy League tourney semifinals.
Whidden is quite familiar with Dartmouth coach Danielle Spencer, who has the Big Green back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2013 in just her third year at the helm.
Whidden and Spencer were teammates for a year at Northwestern when Whidden was a senior and Spencer a freshman. After that, Whidden served as an assistant coach at Northwestern for three seasons while Spencer played there — and when Whidden left to take the job at Colorado in 2013, Spencer took over the assistant's spot at Northwestern before moving on to Dartmouth.
Now, they will face each other Friday in the first meeting ever between the two programs.
"She's done a great job in her time there of building the program into her program," Whidden said. "They're strong, they're physical, they compete every single play. They're not going to give you anything, they're not going to let you take anything from them without a fight."
The Buffs saw an ultra-competitive schedule this year, playing five non-conference games against ranked foes, along with facing two ranked teams in Pac-12 play. They finished strong, winning five of their last seven in April, something Whidden said should give them confidence heading into the NCAAs.
"In April we've been playing a lot better as a team and we've been playing with a lot more purpose," Whidden said. "We've done a lot of learning and understanding. I'm excited about where we're at and I think we can keep getting better as we keep going this week into Friday. Keep getting ourselves better and that will be our best game."
Offensively, the Buffs have been led this year by a pair of seniors. Miranda Stinson led the Pac-12 in goals this season (59) while classmate Samantha Nemirov added 44 goals, third-best in the conference. Stinson also led the team in forced turnovers (23) while goalkeeper Julia Lisella allowed just 9.35 goals per game, 11th-best in the nation.
But heading into Friday, none of those numbers matter, as Dartmouth also has its share of impressive statistics. Kierra Sweeney led the Big Green with 57 goals while the team recorded 17.94 draw controls per game this season — second-best in the nation.
"At this point, everybody's good," Whidden said. "There's no easy games. Every game is a tough game and you have to prepare for that game and only focus on that. You have to be ready to go out there and compete. Everybody's going out with that same mentality to compete and you have to make sure you are preparing yourself to do that as well and understand that every little thing counts that you are doing."
BROADCAST: Friday's game will be broadcast live on the ACC Network. A link to the live stream, as well as links to the live stats, will be available at CUBuffs.com.
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
