2017 MPSF Women's Lacrosse ChampionshipsApr 17, 2017 by Jennifer Zahn
USC, Colorado Women's Lacrosse Teams Notch Decisive MPSF Victories
USC, Colorado Women's Lacrosse Teams Notch Decisive MPSF Victories
The battle to determine the MPSF's regular season champion and the number one seed in the conference's postseason tournament gained a little more clarity on Friday.
By Storms Reback
The battle to determine the MPSF's regular season champion and the number one seed in the conference's postseason tournament gained a little more clarity on Friday.
After suffering two out-of-conference losses in March, USC rattled off three decisive victories in a row before traveling to Oregon to play the Ducks yesterday. The ninth-ranked Trojans got off to a fast start, jumping out to a 7-1 lead in the first half to all but eliminate Oregon's home-field advantage. Oregon cut the lead to five early in the second half after Shannon Williams scored back-to-back goals for the Ducks, but from there USC went on a 6-0 run to effectively ice the game.
Losing 17-7 at home relegated Oregon to the middle of the pack in the conference, while the decisive road victory put USC in an excellent position to repeat as league champions. They're now 4-0 in conference play.
USC's victory injected Friday's Colorado-Stanford matchup with even more significance, as the winner would keep pace with USC in the conference standings while the loser would fall a game behind. History wasn't on Colorado's side. Coming into the game, they'd lost six straight games to Stanford. But it was Senior Day at Colorado's Kittredge Field, and the sixth-ranked Buffaloes played like it, jumping out to a 6-1 lead. Stanford responded by scoring four straight goals, but Colorado pulled away in the second half to win 13-8.
With the victory, Colorado improved to 12-1 on the season, including a perfect 4-0 record in conference play, tying them with USC for first place. The victory set up what could be a preview of the conference championship game, as Colorado travels to Southern California to play USC on April 14.
"We know how big of a game that is," said Colorado coach Ann Elliot. "We know how good they are playing right now and they have grown a lot. They have a lot of young kids that are very talented that have a lot of confidence right now. For us it's going to be about improving and doing a lot of the little things right. We have to make sure we control what we can control down the stretch."
The battle to determine the MPSF's regular season champion and the number one seed in the conference's postseason tournament gained a little more clarity on Friday.
After suffering two out-of-conference losses in March, USC rattled off three decisive victories in a row before traveling to Oregon to play the Ducks yesterday. The ninth-ranked Trojans got off to a fast start, jumping out to a 7-1 lead in the first half to all but eliminate Oregon's home-field advantage. Oregon cut the lead to five early in the second half after Shannon Williams scored back-to-back goals for the Ducks, but from there USC went on a 6-0 run to effectively ice the game.
Losing 17-7 at home relegated Oregon to the middle of the pack in the conference, while the decisive road victory put USC in an excellent position to repeat as league champions. They're now 4-0 in conference play.
USC's victory injected Friday's Colorado-Stanford matchup with even more significance, as the winner would keep pace with USC in the conference standings while the loser would fall a game behind. History wasn't on Colorado's side. Coming into the game, they'd lost six straight games to Stanford. But it was Senior Day at Colorado's Kittredge Field, and the sixth-ranked Buffaloes played like it, jumping out to a 6-1 lead. Stanford responded by scoring four straight goals, but Colorado pulled away in the second half to win 13-8.
With the victory, Colorado improved to 12-1 on the season, including a perfect 4-0 record in conference play, tying them with USC for first place. The victory set up what could be a preview of the conference championship game, as Colorado travels to Southern California to play USC on April 14.
"We know how big of a game that is," said Colorado coach Ann Elliot. "We know how good they are playing right now and they have grown a lot. They have a lot of young kids that are very talented that have a lot of confidence right now. For us it's going to be about improving and doing a lot of the little things right. We have to make sure we control what we can control down the stretch."