The women’s lacrosse team is looking toward the Mountain Pacific Lacrosse League playoffs this weekend in Palo Alto, Calif.
The women are doing well this season in league play.
The Pioneers have defeated the University of California Davis as well as Saint Mary’s, but lost to Stanford and California by narrow margins.
“Stanford will be the big challenge this weekend,” said Head Coach Abby Burbank. “It comes down to discipline and making smart decisions on the field.”
With so many close games in lacrosse and more expected this weekend, that is what will be needed to beat Stanford and California, Burbank said.
The tournament is set up so the top seed plays the fourth seed and the second seed plays the third, while the fifth seeded team does not make the playoffs.
Even though the brackets have not been announced, the Pioneers are almost certain to be the third seed and will face California in first round action Saturday.
The winners of each round will go on to play each other in the finals, while the losers will move to the consolation final the following Sunday.
Since the women are only in a five-team league, they have no chance to move on to the NCAA national championships, but next year Oregon is expected to join and in two years the league will be a conference.
At that point an NCAA tournament berth is possible.
“The coaches set up the league to give the teams a chance to play,” said Burbank. “It is really exciting to be a part of the growth of lacrosse in the west.”
Almost all games played in the league are decided by a couple of goals. This shows how intense and competitive the league is, said Burbank.
For the past few years, the sport of lacrosse has grown at least by a third each year.
This growth is evident at Pioneer games as more high school and age group players are coming out to watch DU play, sporting their club or high school team jackets.
Lead scorer Patience Baldwin is also currently ranked second for scoring and seventh for points in the entire NCAA.
Freshman Stephanie Greenlees and sophomore goalie Stephanie Schneider have also made the lists at one point this season.
This is quite an accomplishment for DU, but Burbank insists that when Patience scores it shows the hard work of all the players.
“[Baldwin] earns every goal she gets, and we have plenty of people who can score,” said Burbank. “With so many goals and such a diverse team, we don’t even notice when one player lights it up.”
Burbank lists the highlight of her season as the time when the women played eight games in 13 days right before finals in March. “The team showed a lot of cohesion which helped us play well in that stretch.”
