{"id":169,"date":"2026-05-11T08:03:05","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T08:03:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=169"},"modified":"2026-05-11T08:03:05","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T08:03:05","slug":"cu-buffs-womens-lacrosse-takes-down-denver-in-ncaa-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=169","title":{"rendered":"CU Buffs women\u2019s lacrosse takes down Denver in NCAA Tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Less than a minute into the biggest game of her career, Maddie Shoup took one for the team.<\/p>\n

Read more Man shot to death in south Thornton early Sunday morning<\/a><\/p>\n

Shoup opened the scoring as the Colorado women\u2019s lacrosse team hosted state rival Denver in the NCAA tournament Sunday, converting a shot while taking a rough tumble to the turf.<\/p>\n

The play proved to be a perfect template for the Buffaloes. It wasn\u2019t always pretty, and Colorado took its lumps along the way, but in the end it was the Buffs who made the winning plays.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s first NCAA Tournament run since 2019.<\/p>\n

It is the first NCAA quarterfinal berth for any CU team since the women\u2019s basketball team reached the quarterfinals of the 2002 NCAA Tournament, and Sunday\u2019s win extended the second-longest winning streak in program history to nine games.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s awesome and a testament to our mentality all season long, and this senior class,\u201d CU head coach Ann Elliott Whidden said. \u201cObviously we\u2019re 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The victory followed a similar blueprint to Friday\u2019s first-round win against Jacksonville, as the Buffs found themselves in a dogfight early in the second half before taking control.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Read more December\u2019s power outage still haunts this Boulder resident<\/a><\/p>\n

The Pioneers scored a pair of late goals to get within 11-9 with 2 minutes, 20 seconds remaining, but the Buffs\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

DU\u2019s Olivia Ripple scored three goals to increase her season total to 73, which breaks the Pioneers\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThe past few years, when the momentum has shifted to the other team, we\u2019ve had a hard time coming back,\u201d said CU senior Lily Assini, who finished with a goal and two assists. \u201cBut this year we\u2019ve found ways to shift that momentum. I think that\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s matchup at Northwestern will be a full-circle moment for the Buffs, who opened the year with a 10-9 win at Northwestern on Feb. 9 that marked the highest-ranked win in program history. Northwestern also is the alma mater of Elliott Whidden, allowing the only coach in CU history to return to her roots for the biggest game of her coaching career.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew it was going to be a battle,\u201d Elliott Whidden said. \u201cA little bit of a tough start for us. But similar to Friday, I\u2019m just proud of our team for sticking with it and believing and just going one play at a time to get ourselves back in. And I thought we played some really controlled, poised lacrosse down at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

(8) CU Buffs women\u2019s lacrosse 11, Denver 9<\/h4>\n

Denver\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 4 1 2 2 \u2014 9<\/p>\n

Colorado\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 2 5 2 2 \u2014 11<\/p>\n

Goals<\/strong> \u2014 Denver: Ripple 3, Bowers 2, Dineen, Keil, Obert, Thomsen-Marr. Colorado: Kennedy 3, Ryan 3, Shoup 2, Assini, Edson, Hill.<\/p>\n

Assists<\/strong> \u2014 Denver: Dineen 2, Bowers, Keil, Thomsen-Marr, Wilmot. Colorado: Assini 2, Edson, Kennedy, Reed, Shoup.<\/p>\n

Goalies (Min.-goals allowed-saves)<\/strong> \u2014 Denver: Gwaku (60-11-10). Colorado: Oh (60-9-7).<\/p>\n

Read more Pedestrian killed in crash with RTD train north of Denver<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Colorado women’s lacrosse team fell behind early, but the Buffaloes rallied past the Denver Pioneers in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Colorado advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals for the first time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,4,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-sports","category-news","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\nCU Buffs women\u2019s lacrosse takes down Denver in NCAA Tournament - Colorado Springs Moverss<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=169\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"CU Buffs women\u2019s lacrosse takes down Denver in NCAA Tournament - Colorado Springs Moverss\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Colorado women's lacrosse team fell behind early, but the Buffaloes rallied past the Denver Pioneers in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. 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