Women's lacrosse: No. 24 CU Buffs hold off UC Davis to advance in Pac-12 tourney
May 1—The Colorado women's lacrosse team needs at least two wins at the final Pac-12 Conference tournament to bolster its case for an NCAA Tournament bid.
The Buffaloes took care of the first of those wins on Wednesday night.
Madeline Pisani put together another dominant scoring effort as the 24th-ranked Buffs topped UC Davis 13-10 in a first-round battle at the LA Memorial Coliseum. The Buffs advance into a must-win semifinal battle on Thursday night against the host USC Trojans (8 p.m. MT, Pac-12 Network).
Pisani, the Pac-12's leading goal scorer, finished with six goals and three assists as CU (12-5) survived a second-half comeback bid from UC Davis to advance.
CU has displayed a habit of overcoming slow starts for much of the season. But it was the opposite story against the Aggies, as the Buffs jumped to an 8-2 lead with less than 5 minutes remaining in the first half. Pisani accounted for four of those goals.
However, UC Davis scored the final two goals of the first half, cutting CU's lead to 8-4 at the break. The Aggies battled to within a goal after opening the second half with three goals in less than two and a half minutes, but a goal from freshman Emily Dodd gave the Buffs an 11-9 lead going into the fourth quarter, and a pair of goals from Pisani gave CU breathing room down the stretch.
CU outshot UC Davis 38-17 with a 28-12 edge in shots on goal. Aggies goalie Ashley Laing kept UC Davis in the game with 15 saves.
USC, ranked 22nd, defeated the Buffs 15-6 in Los Angeles two weeks ago while holding CU to a season-low scoring total.
"I think we know what we're capable of doing," CU head coach Ann Elliott Whidden said. "I think they have to balance aggressiveness with discipline. We didn't do that well in that USC game and we just didn't play well by any stretch, offensively, defensively. We won the draws, but outside of that we just struggled with things what were within our control. And you can't do that against a team that's going to make you make mistakes on top of those."
No. 24 CU Buffs women's lacrosse 13, UC Davis 10
UC Davis 1 3 5 1 — 10
Colorado 3 5 3 2 — 13
Goals — UC Davis: Johnson 4, Markman 2, Brislin, Cosand, Loseke, Raffo. Colorado: Pisani 6, Dodd 2, Shoup 2, Kennedy, Reed, Stokes.
Assists — UC Davis: Gebhardt 2, Brislin. Colorado: Pisani 3, Stokes 2, Hritzuk 2.
Goalies (Min-goals allowed-saves) — UC Davis: Laing (60-13-15). Colorado: Heintz (60-10-2).
