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In her final regular season home game ever, senior Ali Flury entered as the leading scorer in the history of the University of Denver women’s lacrosse.
During her last four years at DU, Flury has scored at least 40 goals each year, including 59 as a freshman. In addition, she has never scored less than 49 points in her four seasons at Denver.
Her consistency and talent has allowed her to attain this prestigious record.
“It is pretty cool, but I owe it to my teammates,” Flury said. “Lexi [Sanders] is amazing at feeding. Everyone does a great job working together and giving everyone the opportunity to score.”
The record-breaking game was against UC Davis on April 9, with Flury scoring five goals in a dominating 17-7 victory. Senior Lexi Sanders, who leads the NCAA in assists, also notched four assists. Following the win, the Pioneers took down No. 11-ranked Stanford, 17-12 in the Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium on April 11.
Stanford is the highest ranked Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) team and the win allowed the Pioneers to control their own destiny heading into last weekend’s regular season home finale against Fresno State.
The team became MPSF champions on Flury’s senior night against the Bulldogs, where the team demonstrated an absolutely overbearing performance.
DU opened the game with 11 goals in the first 12 minutes and never looked back. They won the contest 18-2 with many of the seniors watching from the sidelines. The game was emotional for all because it marked the last regular season game for two of the most successful players in Denver women’s lacrosse history, Flury and Sanders.
Both went out with a bang. Flury had four points on two goals and two assists while Sanders finished with six points on three goals and three assists.
“These have been my best friends, my sisters, it’s been an experience. I will never forget all the people who have been on the team in the last four years,” Sanders said.
However, there is still much left to do. The team closes out the regular season away at Oregon and then comes back home for the conference tournament that will be hosted at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium.
They will enter as a No. 1 seed and can post a perfect conference record with a win over Oregon this weekend. Flury and Sanders enter the postseason with the goal of winning their conference, something they have yet to accomplish in their prestigious careers.
“Our goal is to improve every game and have our best game be our last game,” Sanders said. “We’ll never know when that last game is going to be. We want to win the MPSF tournament, something we’ve never done before. If we do that, it can open up a lot of doors for the program.”
With the focus senior leaders Flury and Sanders have displayed this year, now does not seem the best time to be on the opposing side of the Pioneers.