Photo by: Ryan Lumpkin

After a record 12-game winning streak and the best start in program history, the Pioneers lost their final regular season game 13-8 to Oregon on Saturday afternoon on the road, surrendering the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament.

Denver and Oregon each boasted 6-0 conference records heading into the showdown, battling for the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament, which will take place Friday and Sunday in Palo Alto, Calif. With the loss, Denver claims the No. 2 seed and will play No. 3 seed Stanford on Friday at 8 p.m. in the semifinals.

“Oregon came out and played a good game,” said head coach Liza Kelly. “We were beat by a solid team, and we need to make some changes going into next week. We are a much better team than what we showed this afternoon.”

The Pioneers will enter the MPSF tournament with a 12-2 overall record after going 6-1 in conference. Oregon (12-4, 7-0 MPSF) clinched the No. 1 seed with the victory and will play the No. 4 seed California at 5:30 p.m. on Friday.

Sophomore attack Jenn Etzel led the Pioneers with two goals and an assist, opening the scoring just over two minutes into the contest. Eleven minutes into the first half, Denver led the Ducks 3-2, but a 4-0 run by Oregon in the following six minutes proved too much for the Pioneer offense to overcome, as the Ducks led by at least two goals for the remainder of the game.

The Pioneer defense was led by junior defender Kate Henrich, who recorded five draw controls and forced two turnovers. On the offensive side, sophomore Meredith Harris recorded one goal and two assists during the contest and junior Mikayla Clark scored two goals.

Senior attack Kristina Barrett led Oregon with four goals and two assists, joined by goalkeeper Caroline Federighi’s 12 saves.

Looking forward, Denver is preparing to take on arguably their biggest rival in tournament host Stanford (6-9, 4-2 MPSF). The Pioneers recorded a 12-9 win over the Cardinal on April 7 during Senior Day at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium.

During the April 7 contest, Denver outshot Stanford 33-20, grabbed 21 ground balls to the Cardinal’s 14 and caused 21 of Stanford’s 25 turnovers. Stanford will enter Friday’s game riding a three-game winning streak, led by senior midfielder Emilie Boeri, who leads the Cardinal this season with 53 points off 34 goals and 19 assists. Stanford is looking for their seventh straight MPSF title as reigning champions since 2004-2005.

In 2011, the No. 2 seed Pioneers ended their season with a 7-4 loss to No. 3 seed Oregon in the MPSF semifinals.