Even though Stanford's the better team, we seem to match up better with them than we do USC. That's the team I wanted to see.
It seemed all 3 teams were SO close all year; at least playing each other I'd say it was even-steven. (Having to come back from a 6-12 halftime deficit in the 1st game to win at home and then notching the 2nd in OT on the road, wouldn't say the Stanford match-up was much, if any, easier for the Buffs.)
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More on the Oregon match-
Article-
Direct link -
http://cubuffs.com/news/2018/4/27/b...nce-to-pac-12-womens-lacrosse-title-game.aspx
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BOULDER — After 30 minutes of play Friday afternoon, the Colorado Buffaloes were clinging to a narrow 5-3 lead over Oregon in their Pac-12 women's lacrosse tournament semifinal.
But the Buffs very quickly turned up the heat in the second half with five goals in the first six minutes, then put forth a dominant defensive effort down the stretch to collect a 16-6 win and advance to Sunday's noon championship game at Prentup Field.
The Buffs will play Stanford in Sunday's title game. The Cardinal rallied to beat USC, 15-14, in Friday's second semifinal. Colorado swept the season series with the Cardinal, rallying for an 18-16 win in Boulder in early March, then collecting an 11-10 overtime win two weeks ago.
Friday's win, Colorado's sixth in a row, improved the Buffs' record to 13-4 while Oregon dropped to 9-9.
"In the beginning we missed a few little plays, but outside of that, we were going hard and had some good opportunities, we just weren't finishing," Colorado coach
Ann Elliott said. "Defensively we were sticking to the game plan and making plays. The game plan was to finish every play whether it was getting a ground ball in transition or shooting. I thought we did a lot better job (in the second half)."
The Buffs produced some balanced scoring on the offensive end, with eight different players scoring at least one goal. Junior
Sophia Castillo finished with three goals and three assists, senior
Darby Kiernan added three goals and
Miranda Stinson had two goals and two assists as the Buffs beat the Ducks for the third time in as many tries this year.
Defensively, the Buffs throttled Oregon's attack all day. Sophomore goaltender
Julia Lisellarecorded 12 saves,
Sarah Brown forced three turnovers and
Kelsie Garrison scooped up five ground balls.
"Their goalkeeper shut the door on us," Oregon coach Katrina Dowd said. "They were playing really good defense, and it started on our rides. They were shortening our possessions. They are really tough and battle tested."
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WHAT IT MEANS: With a six-game win streak, the Buffs will take plenty of momentum into Sunday's noon title game.
CU STANDOUTS:
Sophia Castillo led a balanced CU scoring attack with three goals and three assists. …
Darby Kiernan pushed her team-leading goals total to 60 with three on Friday. …
Miranda Stinson had two goals and two assists. … Goaltender
Julia Lisella recorded 12 saves. …
Sarah Brown forced three turnovers. …
Kelsie Garrison scooped up five ground balls.
QUOTEWORTHY: "Our team is about playing seven people on offense and everyone being a threat and doing their role. We worked all week on people stepping up and making plays. Every game is a little bit different with the opportunities that we get, but I thought today, with the way that they were playing defense, allowed for a lot of different people to have opportunities, and it was great to see them finish those and to step to take advantage of them." —
CU coach Ann Elliott
UP NEXT: The Buffs (13-4) will meet Stanford (14-4) on Sunday at noon at Prentup Field in the Pac-12 tournament championship game.
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Box Score -
http://cubuffs.com/documents/2018/4/27//Game_3_Box.pdf
Recap of both of today's semifinal games-
Video of Darby Kiernan scoring all 3 of her goals today, including #200 in her Buff career -
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Speaking of
Ms. Kiernan, since I can't remember it having been noted in AB yet-
BIG congrats to both her and goalie
Julia Lisella (who also starred today with a great .667 save %) on being selected earlier this week as 2 of the final 25 players eligible for lacrosse's Tewaaraton Award (roughly, can be thought of as lacrosse's "Heisman Trophy"). Awesome for the Buffs to have two players be that highly regarded (although I'm sure they'd add that their teammates were FUNDAMENTAL in making it possible).
