The No. 11 Pioneer women’s lacrosse team defeated Oregon 14-6 at the Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium on Friday evening, extending their winning streak to 14 games and earning their 16th win of the season, tying the school record set by the 2007 squad.
Denver finished the regular season with overall record of 16-1 and went undefeated at 8-0 in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation conference play with their 14-6 victory over the Ducks (8-9, 3-5 MPSF). This season marks the fourth time under head coach Liza Kelly that the Pioneers have gone undefeated in conference play.
Redshirt senior attack Kara Secora had four goals and two assists, breaking DU’s career scoring record. Secora now has 261 career points, putting her just over Karen Morton (2006-2009) for the all-time record.
Also scoring for the Pioneers were sophomore attack Jill Remenapp with four goals, freshman midfielder Rachael McKinnon with three goals, junior attack Jenn Etzel with two goals and senior midfielder Mikayla Clark with one goal.
Defending the Pioneer goal was redshirt sophomore Hannah Hook, who made a career-high 14 saves in her 16th win of the season. Senior defender Kate Henrich extended her DU single-season record and NCAA lead with six caused turnovers, pushing her number to 60 this season while adding four ground balls.
“I am really proud of the win today,” head coach Liza Kelly said. “I think the team came out and played extremely hard for the seniors, and the seniors played exceptionally well in the game. We came out with a lot of fire, having lost to Oregon last year, and played a full 60 minutes.”
The Pioneers started the night strong, taking a four-goal lead powered a goal from Clark, one from Etzel and two from Secora in the first seven minutes of the game.
Oregon responded with four of their own to level the score at the end of the first half and send both teams to the locker room tied at 4-4. Oregon successfully held DU scoreless for the final 23 minutes of the first half.
Denver seized control early in the second half, scoring five straight goals.
Secora struck first less than two minutes into the second half before Remenapp followed up with one of her own a minute later.
McKinnon added two goals in a row following Remenapp’s giving the Pioneers an 8-4 advantage with 20 minutes remaining in regulation. Remenapp added one more to conclude the Pioneer’s scoring streak and make the score 9-4 before Oregon answered.
Oregon’s two goals midway through the half still left them behind 9-6, after which the Pioneers chalked up five more goals.
Remenapp answered the Duck’s pair of goals with a pair of her own to give the Pioneers an 11-6 lead. McKinnon, Etzel and Secora added their final goals of the game in the last five minutes of the game to make the score it’s final 14-6 margin.
Friday also marked Senior Day for the Pioneers, when tri-captains Secora, Henrich and Jessica Gring were honored prior to the game alongside classmates Alex Befus and Mikayla Clark.
With the win, Kelly also improved her career record as head coach to 151-70 overall and 63-7 in conference play in twelve seasons with DU and Boston University.
Sophomore midfielder Kiki Boone also tied Denver’s single-season record with her 64th draw control, while Remenapp needs just two more points to become the second-ever Pioneer to record 100 points in a season.
The Pioneers next challenge is the MPSF Tournament in Eugene, Oregon next weekend. As the No. 1 seeded team, they will open the tournament on Thursday, May 2 against No. 4 seeded USC at 5:30pm Mountain Time.
