No. 18 Colorado Defeats Harvard in Home Opener

BOULDER – In the first meeting against Harvard, the No. 18 Colorado women's lacrosse team came out on top, defeating the Crimson in its home opener on Friday at Kittredge Field.

"Every win is incredibly important for us at the end of the day," head coach Ann Elliott Whidden said. "I think we are excited to get it. It wasn't easy for us and we made things a little bit difficult, but for this team, as we are growing, every win and every little bit of confidence we can get is important."

CU (1-1) led the Crimson 7-2 at halftime, but were able to hold off Harvard's second half comeback attempt that saw the Crimson outscore CU 5-2.

Sophomore Charlie Rudy led the Buffs with four goals, while junior Sadie Grozier added another three. In goal, senior Julia Lisella played a solid game, stopping 10 shots.

WHAT HAPPENED: The Buffaloes scored the first six goals of the game. Rudy got the scoring started at 21:30 and was followed quickly by Grozier (17:52). Less than a minute later Rudy scored her second of the game to give the Buffs a 3-0 lead.

Around the midway point in the half, Liz Phillips found the back of the net for her first of the year. Grozier and Rudy would score the fifth and sixth goals, respectively, before the Crimson would get on the board at 10:29. Harvard scored the next goal at 6:36 to cut CU's advantage to four goals, but Rudy knocked her third of the game to put CU up 7-2 with 25 seconds left in the half.

The Crimson scored the first two of the second half (27:07, 22:58), this time getting within three scores of the Buffs. But Grozier answered for the Buffs with her fourth goal of the game at 21:34 (8-4).

With just under 14 minutes to play, Harvard scored again, but this time sophomore Kate Burnside had the answer for the Buffs, scoring her first of the season at 10:05 to put the Buffs up 9-5.

The Crimson attack kept coming, scoring twice at 8:11 and 5:08. Lisella had some great saves down the stretch, keeping the Buffs poised for a victory.

"We got off to a pretty good start and we are playing with a lot of confidence," Whidden said. "Some things were clicking. We struggled a little bit down the stretch and our defense was able to keep us in the game and Julia had another great game for us so that was huge.

KEY STATISTICS: The stats were pretty even. Both teams had nine draw controls. Colorado led in shots (27-25) and had 16 turnovers to HU's 17. Harvard had the edge in ground balls (19-18). Each team converted on one free-position attempt.

NOTABLE:

For the second straight game, Julia Lisella made 10 or more saves. This is the 19^th time in her career she has recorded 10 or more.
Chloe Willard had a career-high three assists in the win
For the fifth time in her career, Charlie Rudy recorded three or more goals.
The Buffs are now 5-2 in home openers.

TEAM LEADERTS:

Colorado

Points: 14

Goals: 9

Assists: 5

Draw Controls: 9

Ground Balls: 18

Saves: 10

Harvard

Points: 12

Goals: 7

Assists: 5

Draw Controls: 9

Ground Balls: 19

Saves: 12

UP NEXT: Colorado hits the road to face its second top-20 team, No. 14 Michigan, in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Sunday, Feb. 23 at 10 a.m. MT/12 p.m. ET.

QUOTES:
Ann Elliott Whidden
On how does it feel to get this opening win
"Every win is incredibly important for us at the end of the day. I think we are excited to get it. It wasn't easy for us and we made things a little bit difficult, but for this team, as we are growing, every win and every little bit of confidence we can get is important."

On the importance of maintaining possession
"We got off to a pretty good start and we are playing with a lot of confidence. Some things were clicking. We struggled a little bit down the stretch and our defense was able to keep us in the game and Julia had another great game for us so that was huge. I think as we turn to Michigan now we know we are playing a great team that very successful very well coached and we are going to really have to turn it around quick here."

On younger players
"I think for us again, our team is built on everybody stepping up and I thought we did a good job of that and people being a threat, we just gotta get better at playing 60 minutes. We fell off and lost a little bit of confidence there. And they just gotta be able to bounce back and respond and as we keep going they will."

Sadie Grozier
On today's win
"It definitely felt really good. I mean it was our home opener and so it is really exciting to win. And just knowing that we were so close against Florida and just couldn't finish at the end that was really the only thing that was on our mind going into this game so we really just wanted to pull through and win at home."

Importance of maintaining possession
"Going against Michigan, they are a great team so we just have to make sure that we are taking care of the ball every single time that we get it especially winning it off the drop. We just gotta make sure that we do a better job, maintaining long possessions because they play quick so we just have to play at our own pace.

Teammate success
"Assisting is just something that we've worked on this year to just be more dynamic on our offense because in years past we've been really focused on dodging so just being able to get more people involved in getting assists is really awesome and when every single person is a threat it just makes the whole offense better

On seeing a difference in the field
"They played a bit of a different zone than we saw against Florida, so when you see open space you just gotta attack it and I think that was everyone's mindset. We just went in confident knowing that we had to beat our one v ones and go to goal."

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Team Stats

Charlie Rudy

Sadie Grozier

Kate Burnside

Liz Phillips

Players Mentioned

Kate Burnside

Sadie Grozier

Julia Lisella

Liz Phillips

Charlie Rudy

Chloe Willard

Players Mentioned

Kate Burnside

Sadie Grozier

Julia Lisella

Liz Phillips

Charlie Rudy

Chloe Willard