After a tough 19-6 loss to Duke University in the season opener the women’s lacrosse team came back with a 14-4 victory at Columbia last Saturday. The Pioneers recorded 22 turnovers in the game against Duke and scored just two goals in the first 30 minutes.

DU had just 15 turnovers against Columbia along with 10 first half goals.

“We came out with a bad loss to Duke and we worked on what we needed to work on during the week and I think we executed everything that we didn’t do well on against Duke in the game against Columbia,” said senior Kristie Leggio.

The Pioneers scored early and often in the first half of the victory over Columbia as freshman Ali Flury put in the first of her four goals on the day just 25 seconds into the contest.

“I was pleased with the effort. They really worked hard. I think against Duke we played a little scared and coming out scoring against Columbia showed us that we are ready to go,” said first-year coach Liza Kelly.

Senior Kristie Leggio recorded four goals and two assists in the win. Last season Leggio set a new Denver season record with 104 points on 67 goals and 37 assists and was named MPSF conference player of the year. She was the 18th player in Division 1 history to score more than 100 points in a season.

Sophomore Karen Morton scored three goals and had an assist along with sophomore Steph Coyne, freshman Lexi Sanders and junior Megan Carver all put in a goal apiece.

“It was a really good confidence booster for our team. We know we were better than how we played against Duke and to come out and play our game was really awesome,” said junior goaltender Becky Childs, who saved 12 of the 16 shots that she faced.

The Pioneers finished last season with a school best record of 15-5 and just missed out on their first ever NCAA tournament bid. This season will be a tougher challenge for DU as the team will no longer play Division 3 schools like Colorado College, C.W. Post or Regis. Instead DU will play schools like No. 2 ranked Duke, No. 11 Johns Hopkins, No. 14 Hofstra and No. 16 Cornell among others.

“I think we have pretty much the same team if not a better team than last year and I think with the harder opponents it is just more of a challenge and will help keep us growing,” said Leggio.

DU will next play this weekend when they travel to take on Virginia Tech on Friday and Longwood University on Sunday.