Colorado
13-5, 5-2Pac-12
USC
12-5, 6-1Pac-12
Buffs Take Down USC, Will Play in Tournament Final Saturday
May 02, 2024 | Lacrosse
LOS ANGELES -- The No. 24 Colorado Buffaloes defeated the No. 21 USC Trojans 12-9 Thursday night at the LA Memorial Coliseum to advance to the championship game of the Pac-12 Tournament. The Buffs will take on the Stanford Cardinal in the title game Saturday at 1 p.m. MT.
It's the first time Colorado has defeated USC since the 2021 season, where they won in the conference tournament at Stanford. It breaks a six-game losing streak against Southern California, and the Buffs are now 5-0 in Pac-12 semifinals and it will be the fifth appearance in the title game out of six possible games.
"I'm really proud of this team," head coach Ann Elliott Whidden said. "We knew we had it in us all year, but we haven't quite executed on this stage the way we had planned. Obviously playing last night and having turned around and play a good USC team that we struggled against last time was difficult, but I thought our girls really stuck to the game plan. They were disciplined. They took advantage of their opportunities defensively, we did a lot better of a job and just really proud of their effort and able to hang on in the end against a really good team."
A dominant first half defensive performance led the Buffs to victory, with the nine goals allowed the fewest since a 9-8 win in that last victory against the Trojans in the 2021 Pac-12 semifinals.
Madeline Pisani did it once again for Colorado, leading all Buff scorers with four goals. Her season total climbs up to 66, which is tied for the second-most goals in a season in school history. Charlie Rudy also had 66 goals last season for CU. Darby Kiernan holds the record with 70 goals back in the 2018 season.
Ashley Stokes and Eve Hritzuk tallied multiple assists for the second night in a row, while each scoring as well. Hritzuk found the back of the net twice, along with three assists. Stokes posted a score and two assists. With those two assists, she ties her career-high of 28 on the season.
Aidan Carr recorded her 100th career draw control in the first quarter Friday night and had 11 in the contest. She's up to 108 on the campaign and is the first Buff freshman to reach the century mark in that category.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Just like the previous night, it was Madeline Pisani who got the scoring started for the Buffaloes. Fellow senior Sydney Zimmerman notched a score a few minutes later to put the Buffs up 2-0 early on. USC scored their first of the contest at the 10:25 mark. Lily Assini was able to capture the third CU goal of the game, with the shot clock winding down. Ashley Stokes added one more on for the Buffs to go up by three scores. Maggie Brown for USC cut that lead back to two with her first goal of the game. Each team would score once more in the quarter, leaving a 5-3 advantage in favor of CU.
Pisani notched her second score of the game to open things up in the second period. Claudia Shevitz nabbed just the second goal of the quarter between both teams, giving USC their fourth point of the contest. Less than a minute later, Eve Hritzuk joined the scoring party, thanks to a free position attempt. Pisani scored her third of the game moments later. Colorado would head into halftime up 8-5 on the Trojans.
It was once again Pisani who opened the quarter with a score, putting her team up 9-5 early in the third quarter. Molly Reed scored her first goal of the game, giving the Buffs double-digit points. Colorado would head into the fourth with a 10-5 lead.
The Trojans put up a game-high four goals in the final period, but it wouldn't be enough. The Buffaloes got one more score from Hritzuk to bring them to a dozen goals on the night, which would eventually turn into a 12-9 win.
FINAL QUOTE
"Obviously we've been here before, I think all but one year we've had the privilege of playing in this championship game and we fallen a little bit short," Whidden stated. "I think we have to come out prepared, but we got to control the tempo again. We got to do the little things. This is a really good Stanford team. They're very dynamic on offense, and they're just really good on defense. So we just have to make sure we're ready defensively again. I think we're going to need another effort like tonight and offensively, just ready to take advantage of those opportunities and finish and it should be exciting."
GOAL SCORERS
Madeline Pisani - 4
Lily Assini - 2
Eve Hritzuk - 2
Sydney Zimmerman - 1
Ashley Stokes - 1
Molly Reed - 1
Rachel Kennedy - 1
UP NEXT
The Buffs will play in the championship game on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. MDT against the Stanford Cardinal.
