Colorado lacrosse defeats Denver in NCAA second-round battle

Less than a minute into the biggest game of her career, Maddie Shoup took one for the team.

Shoup opened the scoring as the Colorado women’s lacrosse team hosted state rival Denver in the NCAA quarterfinals Sunday, converting a shot while taking a rough tumble to the turf.

The play proved to be a perfect template for the Buffaloes. It wasn’t always pretty, and Colorado took its lumps along the way, but in the end it was the Buffs who made the winning plays.

Eighth-seeded Colorado shook off a ragged start and dominated late, posting an 11-9 victory in an NCAA Tournament second-round battle at Prentup Field.

CU (16-3) tied the program record for wins and earned the first NCAA quarterfinal berth in the 13-season history of the program. The Buffs will play Thursday at top-seeded Northwestern, where CU posted a resounding season-opening road win that sparked the program’s first NCAA Tournament run since 2019.

It is the first NCAA quarterfinal berth for any CU team since the women’s basketball team reached the quarterfinals of the 2002 NCAA Tournament, and Sunday’s win extended the second-longest winning streak in program history to nine games.

“I think it’s awesome and a testament to our mentality all season long, and this senior class,” CU head coach Ann Elliott Whidden said. “Obviously we’re just focused on the one game in front of us and just taking it one game at a time. But this is huge for this team. Being able to start at Northwestern, we had a little bit of a tough middle of the season for us, I think down this stretch last stretch we have regrouped and found the fun back in playing. This is an awesome moment for this program.”

The victory followed a similar blueprint to Friday’s first-round win against Jacksonville, as the Buffs found themselves in a dogfight early in the second half before taking control.

DU (16-4) led 4-2 at the end of the first quarter and 5-3 early in the second, scoring three of those goals with a one-player advantage due to CU penalties. But the Buffs regrouped to score four consecutive goals, taking a 7-5 lead at halftime.

The Buffs led 9-7 at the end of the third quarter when Rachel Kennedy and Teagan Ryan, who paced CU with three goals apiece, converted back-to-back goals less than a minute apart early in the fourth quarter to give the Buffs an 11-7 edge.

The Pioneers scored a pair of late goals to get within 11-9 with 2 minutes, 20 seconds remaining, but the Buffs’ defense held strong the rest of the way. CU goalie Elena Oh finished with seven saves, and the defense maintained its season-long streak of holding every opponent to a single-digit goal total.

DU’s Olivia Ripple scored three goals to increase her season total to 73, which breaks the Pioneers’ season record. Ripple entered the game ranked seventh in the nation in goals and recorded her third goal with 10:48 left in the first half, but she was held scoreless the rest of the way.

“The past few years, when the momentum has shifted to the other team, we’ve had a hard time coming back,” said CU senior Lily Assini, who finished with a goal and two assists. “But this year we’ve found ways to shift that momentum. I think that’s where we have found some pretty successful moments, especially today. Being down early, we knew we could still get the job done and there was a lot of the game left.”