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2024 Pac 12 Championships thread- #3 seed/ 24th ranked WOMEN'S LACROSSE (@ USC May 1-4; All games on the Pac 12 Network)

AztecBuff

AztecBuff

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(As usual, I plan on using this thread for all games as the Buffs (hopefully) advance at this year's tournament.)

#3 seed and #24 nationally ranked CU Buff lacrosse (11-5 overall, 5-2 in Pac 12 play) starts off tournament play with a late (8:30 PM MT) game tomorrow (Wednesday) night against the #6 seed UC - Davis Aggies (9-7, 2-5), with the winner then scheduled to face off against the host and #2 seed / #21 ranked USC Trojans Thursday night starting at 8:00 PM MT.

When they met in the regular season earlier this month, CU got the win on the road over the Aggies by a 17-7 score.

For what it's worth, in the latest RPI ratings (https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/lacrosse-women/d1/ncaa-womens-lacrosse-rpi), CU is at #26, while UC - Davis is #55 and USC #24.

IF like last year, all tournament games will be shown on many Pac 12 Network channels. (See bottom of this post for more information and links as they become available.)

Go Buffs!!!

(Cubuffs preview not available as I type this.)

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

More on the opponent(s):

UC - Davis :
Roster - https://ucdavisaggies.com/sports/womens-lacrosse/roster
Stats - https://ucdavisaggies.com/sports/womens-lacrosse/stats
Schedule - https://ucdavisaggies.com/sports/womens-lacrosse/schedule
Their preview article - Not available as I type this.

USC:
Roster - https://usctrojans.com/sports/womens-lacrosse/roster
Stats - https://usctrojans.com/sports/womens-lacrosse/stats
Schedule - https://usctrojans.com/sports/womens-lacrosse/schedule
Their preview article - https://usctrojans.com/news/2024/5/...-colorado-in-pac-12-tournament-semifinal.aspx

Stanford:
Roster - https://gostanford.com/sports/womens-lacrosse/roster
Stats - https://gostanford.com/sports/womens-lacrosse/stats
Schedule - https://gostanford.com/sports/womens-lacrosse/schedule
Their preview article - https://admin.gostanford.com/gameday/womens-lacrosse-vs-colorado/wlax/5419/

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Media links :

Pac 12's tourney release (Info on all game times and potential matchups, bracket, video coverage, etc.) - https://pac-12.com/article/2024/04/27/bracket-set-2024-pac-12-womens-lacrosse-tournament

From that, schedule for all games thiroughout the tournament is:

"
DateTimeTeamsHow to WatchTalent
Wed., May 14:30p PT / 5:30p MTNo. 4 Arizona State vs. No. 5 OregonPac-12 Network, Pac-12 NowTroy Clardy, Kara Lentz
7:30p PT / 8:30p MTNo. 3 Colorado vs. No. 6 UC DavisPac-12 Network, Pac-12 NowTroy Clardy, Kara Lentz
Thurs., May 24p PT / 5p MTNo. 1 Stanford vs. ASU/OREPac-12 Network, Pac-12 NowTroy Clardy, Kara Lentz
7p PT / 8p MTNo. 2 USC vs. COLO/UCDPac-12 Network, Pac-12 NowTroy Clardy, Kara Lentz
Sat., May 412p PT / 1p MTChampionshipPac-12 Network, Pac-12 NowTroy Clardy, Kara Lentz
"

Individual CU Game links:

Vs. UC - Davis :
Live stats (As I type this, no direct link available. Link to eventual links for all tourney live stats looks to be https://www.statbroadcast.com/events/tournament.php?tid=847 .) - https://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=526182

Games notes - Not available as I type this.

Live Video - Game is scheduled to be shown on the Pac 12 Networks. (Last year, I believe most if not all games were shown on most if not all Network channels.) . For anyone with a subscription to any Pac 12 Network channel, I'm guessing the game will also be viewable on the Pac 12 App, or through a link at https://pac-12.com/womens-lacrosse/schedule/network/broadcast . Direct link for this game - https://pac-12.com/womens-lacrosse/event/2024/05/01/uc-davis-vs-colorado

Vs. USC :
Live stats - https://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=526369

Live Video - Game is scheduled to be shown on all 7 Pac 12 Network channels. For anyone with a subscription to any Pac 12 Network channel, I'm guessing the game will also be viewable on the Pac 12 App, or through a link at https://pac-12.com/womens-lacrosse/event/2024/05/02/colorado-vs-usc

Vs. Stanford :
Live stats - https://stats.statbroadcast.com/statmonitr/?id=526465 .

Live Video - Game is scheduled to be shown on the Pac 12 Network National, Arizona and Los Angeles channels. For anyone with a subscription to any Pac 12 Network channel, I'm guessing the game will also be viewable on the Pac 12 App, or through a link at https://pac-12.com/womens-lacrosse/event/2024/05/04/colorado-vs-stanford .
 
Last edited:
Tourney game day #1!



__________________________________________________________________________

And, congrats to those Buffs who earned conference honors!




Direct link to article - https://cubuffs.com/news/2024/4/30/lacrosse-four-buffaloes-tabbed-pac-12-all-conference

"
BOULDER — The Pac-12 announced the All-Conference teams Tuesday afternoon, where four Colorado Buffaloes were recognized as a part of the first and second teams.

Senior midfielders Madeline Pisani and Ashley Stokes were named first-team All-Conference, while Lily Assini and Jess Peluso were named to second-team All-Conference.

It's the second time Stokes has been named to an All-Conference team in her career, after earning Pac-12 second-team honors last season. This is Pisani's first All-Conference honor in her career. Assini and Peluso net second-team conference honors in their sophomore seasons.

Stokes ends the regular season with 58 points (34 G, 24 A) while setting a new career-high with 34 goals. She finishes inside the top-7 in the conference for assists and points. The 58 points on the year are the second most she's ever had in a season, and would need three more in the conference tournament in order to earn a new career-high.

Her best game of the season came against Kent State earlier this month, when she recorded 11 points on seven goals and four assists, the most points scored in a game by a Buff since the 2021 season. Overall, she tallied 18 points on the weekend, which eventually earned her Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week Honors.
Pisani sits at 56 goals through 16 games, which is a 3.50 average per game, and could tie or break the school record after this week of play. She was rewarded Pac-12 and IWLCA Offensive Player of the Week back in February, when she posted back-to-back four goal performances, while scoring both game-winning goals for the Buffs.

The most impressive showing of the season from Pisani was arguably the most recent game against Oregon, when she had a career-high seven goals.

The second-year player from New York — Peluso — has had a historic season on the defensive side of the ball for the Buffs. She enters this week with 39 caused turnovers, which leads the Pac-12 by a wide margin. The school record for CTOs per game in one season is 1.70, Peluso currently stands at 2.33 CTOs per game.
Peluso's standout game of the year came against Cal on the road, when she recorded a career-high five caused turnovers and four ground balls.

Assini can do it all for the Buffs, and ranks top-5 on the team in just about every major statistical category. Her most notable ones are 22 ground balls, the fourth-most on the team and 32 draw controls, the second-most for CU. Her best outing came against Louisville in the season opener when she posted six draw controls and three ground balls.

UP NEXT
Colorado will play Wednesday night against UC Davis in round one of the Pac-12 Tournament, at 8:30 p.m. MDT.
"
 
The 1st rounder is about to begin. (Looks like it's being televised on 6 of the 7 Pac-12 Network channels, with the Arizona one the only one not showing it.)

 
It was a TIGHT 1st quarter, with the Buffs taking a 3-1 lead into the 2nd. (The Buff defense allowed very few shots and generating a few turnovers, but the UC - Davis defense also looked very packed in, giving the Buffs problems in getting many quality shots themselves.)
 
It's 8-4 CU at the half. (Had a chance to be a runaway but the Aggies got the last 2 goals, the last with 3 seconds left, to tighten it up and make it a still contentious game when the 2nd half starts.)

 
This one's looking like a nail biter as the Buff lead is down to 2 (11-9) as Davis dominates the 3rd quarter both offensively and defensively. (Believe UCD is also going to have a 1 player advantage for the 1st minute or so of the 4th quarter because of a Buff yellow card late in the 3rd, so the opening draw could be extra big for the Buffs.)
 
Well - not the easiest win (which isn't optimal since the team will be meeting a fresh USC team tomorrow night), but the Buffs do advance with a nice 4th quarter that leads to a 13-10 W.

Way to go Buffs!

 
Media after last night's win, and look forward to tonight. Again, tonight's semi-final game against USC is scheduled to begin at 8:00 PM MT.

Article -




Direct link - https://cubuffs.com/news/2024/5/1/lacrosse-buffs-defeat-uc-davis-advance-in-conference-tournament

"
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Colorado Buffaloes senior attacker — Madeline Pisani — led her team Wednesday evening with a career-high nine points (6 G, 3 A) in a 13-10 win over UC Davis. With the Buffs win, it will advance them to the tournament semi-finals tomorrow night against tournament host USC Trojans.

Colorado moves to 12-5 on the year overall, while UC Davis falls to 9-8 and is eliminated from the conference tournament. After a 5-0 scoring run by the Buffaloes in the second quarter, UC Davis made a valiant effort, but couldn't muster enough for a comeback win.

"We knew this UC Davis team was gonna come out here at this point of the season," head coach Ann Elliott Whidden said. "Everyone's playing for another day, no one's given anything after this point and so we expected it to be a battle but we were prepared for them to play a little different. I thought we did an okay job in the moments we needed to but not great over the 60 minutes of just taking control when it was right there. I think we could have taken control and made this easier but at the same time I'm proud of our fight, proud of our ability to handle some emotions and make the plays we needed to get this win.

After scoring seven times in the last game, Pisani tallied six goals and three assists Wednesday night, giving her 62 goals and 75 points on the year. She scored or assisted on nine of the teams' 13 goals in the contest. Only Ashley Stokes had more points (11) in a single game by a Buff this season.

Pisani is just the fourth Buff ever to record 60 or more goals in a season, and the first to do it since Charlie Rudy had 66 last season. Her per game goal average is at a 3.65 clip and would break the school record if that were to stand.

Maddie Shoup and Emily Dodd were the only other Buffaloes on the night to notch multiple goals on the night. Shoup added two caused turnovers to her effort, while Dodd also had three draw controls.

Stokes posted three points on the night, between one score and two assists. She's now up to 26 assists on the year, two short of her career-high she set last year.

Freshman Aidan Carr continues to be a dominant draw control specialist for CU, and has recorded double-digit draw controls in four consecutive games after posting 10 tonight in the win over UC Davis. Her season total is up to 97 DC's, the fourth-most in a single season in school history.
...

FINAL QUOTE
"I think obviously it's a tough turnaround, playing tonight and then having to turn around late tomorrow night when the other teams aren't playing, but we've been in this situation before," Whidden stated. "We were in it last year, and we came out with the win. So I think we know what we're capable of doing. We know that none of those factors really matter. It just matters that our mentality and how we come out here prepared to play. We're going to have to do a good job of controlling the pace of the game and the things that we can control and we're gonna have to grind it out for 60 minutes, but I think this team's ready, we're prepared and we'll be more prepared than we were last time we faced them."
...

UP NEXT
The Buffs will play the no. 2 seed USC Trojans tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. PST, with a trip for the championship game on the line.
"
____________________________________________________________________________________

Box score - https://cubuffs.com/sports/womens-lacrosse/stats/2024/uc-davis/boxscore/17050





 
nice win. need to play better against USC. Would love to beat them before we leave the conference one more time
 
Phew - After scoring 3 goals in under a minute, USC had the CU lead down to 3 goals with 6-1/2 minutes still left, but neither team scores the rest of the way, and the CU goalie had at least a couple big saves, so the Buffs advance to the final with a 12-9 W over the #21 Trojans. (Believe this also breaks a 6 or so game USC win streak over CU.)

Way to go Buffs!!!
 
Media after last night's win, and brief look forward in front of Saturday's 1:00 PM MT Tourney championship:
(The final looks like it could be a high scoring affair, as #4 seed ASU was able to score 15 times against #1 seed Stanford last night, while the Cardinal got 20. (CU lost 12-20 in Boulder to the Trees during the regular season.))

Article - https://cubuffs.com/news/2024/5/2/untitled-story

"

Buffs Take Down USC, Will Play in Tournament Final Saturday​

By: Tanner Kay, Athletic Communication Associate

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — The Colorado Buffaloes defeated the USC Trojans in Los Angeles Thursday night by a score of 12-9, and will advance to the championship game of the Pac-12 Tournament on Saturday afternoon. The Buffs will take on the Stanford Cardinal in that game.

It's the first time Colorado has defeated USC since the 2021 season, when CU took down the Trojans in the conference tournament at Stanford. It breaks a six-game losing streak against Southern California.

A dominant first half defensive performance led the Buffs to a semi-final win over the Trojans. The nine goals allowed on the evening were the least given up by the Buffaloes in a game against the Trojans since their 9-8 win in 2021.

Madeline Pisani did it once more 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.

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.
...

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 12:00 p.m. PST against the Stanford Cardinal.
"
__________________________________________________________________________________________

Box score - https://cubuffs.com/sports/womens-lacrosse/stats/2024/usc/boxscore/17057

Highlights (The Buff game begins to be discussed and then shown a little before the 3 minute mark.)



 
nice win and a great defensive game. Need to up the level again and beat Stanford. CU has been in 5 of the 6 pac 12 championship games and never won. Need to change that and beat another team in red
 
Buffs going to need a pretty big comeback in this game as it's 5-8 going into the 4th quarter.
 
I hope we don't get snubbed for the NCAAs. Top 20 team this year, but so few bids available.
 
Article after the possible season ender loss to Stanford - https://cubuffs.com/news/2024/5/4/lacrosse-buffs-fall-to-stanford-in-pac-12-championship-game

"

Buffs Fall to Stanford in Pac-12 Championship Game​

By: Tanner Kay, Athletic Communication Associate

LOS ANGELES —The No. 24 Colorado Buffaloes (13-6) fell to the No. 16 Stanford Cardinal (13-4) 11-8 Saturday afternoon in the Pac-12 Tournament Championship game. The Buffs move to 13-6 overall on the season, and finish with a 2-1 record in the tournament.

Stanford had set the tone early on, scoring three consecutive goals in the first ten minutes of the game. The Buffs answered with three scores in a row of their own to tie the game, but the Cardinal would outscore them 8-5 in the final three quarters to claim the Pac-12 title.

"It was a great effort by our team, it's not easy to come out and try to play and win three games in four days," head coach Ann Elliott Whidden said. "I thought they did a good job sticking to the game plan, and when we had opportunities to win this game we just didn't capitalize enough today and Stanford did a good job. I think there's a lot to be proud of for this group. We'll see tomorrow night, but hopefully we'll get another opportunity to play. I think the effort today hopefully shows the type of team we are and that we can compete."

Colorado awaits for their postseason fate on Selection Sunday, which will be tomorrow night at 7 p.m. MDT. The Buffs will look to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2019 season.

Rachel Kennedy and Eve Hritzuk each racked up a multi-score performance in the title game on Saturday, the only Buffs with multiple scores in the contest. Hritzuk led all CU scorers with three goals, and had 10 points (5 G, 5 A) across the three games in the conference tournament. Kennedy scored two or more goals for just the third time all season on Saturday afternoon.

Madeline Pisani notched one goal in the loss, making her the only Buff to score in every game so far this year. She's up to 67 goals on the year, the second-most ever in a season by a Buff. Darby Kiernan scored 70 goals for the Buffaloes back during the 2018 season.

Southern California native — Ashley Stokes — had three points on the day, courtesy of one score and two assists. Stokes reaches the 30 assists plateau for the season, becoming just the second Buff to ever do so. Kiernan also holds the school record of 31 assists for a single season.

The Buffaloes primary draw specialist, Aidan Carr, posted double-digit draw controls (12) for the sixth consecutive game and is now at 120 draw controls for the year. That ties Kiernan and her 2017 season for the second-most draw controls by a Buff.
...

PAC-12 ALL-TOURNAMENT
Three Buffs were named to the Pac-12 All-Tournament team on Saturday after the game.


FINAL QUOTE
"I think we've had a great season from beginning to the end," Whidden said. "We've been playing great lacrosse, this last little stretch and over this weekend. Again, to make it to this championship when you have to play in the first round, to come out and keep this game close and compete for the whole 60 minutes. There's a lot to be proud of. I think we get a chance. We'll take care of business and be ready for it."

UP NEXT
The Buffs postseason fate will be determined tomorrow night, at 7 p.m. MDT for selection Sunday when the field of 29 teams are announced for the upcoming NCAA Tournament.
...
"
___________________________________________________________________________________________________

And, the team will learn tonight whether they've been selected for the NCAA Tournament, with the Selection Show scheduled to be shown at 7:00 PM MT on ESPN2.

As I've mentioned in previous game threads, the lacrosse NCAA tournament is much smaller most other team sports, and there are only 14 at-large teams selected (to go along with 15 conference winner auto-qualifiers for a total field of 29).

The Buffs were at #24 in RPI after beating the Trojans, so I'm hoping they'll be looked at kindly by the committee and earn a bid. Stanford was at #16, so I wouldn't think that loss yesterday will cost them much in RPI, and to the effect that prior opponents matters, 2 of the 3 non-conference teams the Buffs lost to, Northwestern and DU, went all the way and won their conference tournaments yesterday.
 
Bummed as it looks like the team was NOT selected to the NCAA Tourney.
(Looks like the Pac 12 didn't get much respect overall, as USC also wasn't awarded a bid, and #19 ranked Stanford gets a very tough #13 DU team in the 1st round, and if they get by them "get" to play a rested (they get a 1st round bye) #1 ranked and defending champion Northwestern a couple days later in the 2nd round.)

Thanks to the team for all the work they put in to give us fans a lot of great entertainment this year, and best wishes with upcoming finals and all that lays ahead for all, whether they're return next season to represent the Buffs or are moving on.




Full tourney bracket - https://www.ncaa.com/brackets/lacrosse-women/d1/2024
 
By the way, I did find a couple pre-selection show bracketologies, and both had the Buffs in (albeit as one of it not the last teams in).

Looking at a team that DID make it in instead of the Buffs based on their predictions, looks like Duke probably ended up being the last one in, even though their RPI (31) was quite aways behinds the Buffs (and a few other teams) #24.

Assume the fact that the Devils had one big home win, over season-ending ranked #6 and RPI #10 Virginia, MUST have been enough for the committee to select the team with the significantly worse RPI.

Links to the bracketologies (Note that the insidelacrosse one was before the conference finals (dated 5/2), but since they had Stanford winning that anyways, assume they still probably would have had the Buffs as "in".):


www.usalacrosse.com

NCAA Bracketology: The Final Division I Women's Bracket Projection

James Madison, Fairfield, Drexel and Colorado are our projected last four teams in the field.
www.usalacrosse.com www.usalacrosse.com


Final pre-selection show RPI (As I type this, the NCAA website itself wasn't updated for Championship Saturday, but hope / assume this website's RPI calculaions are totally accurate.?.) - https://lacrossereference.com/stats/rpi-d1-women/
 
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