DU Women’s Lacrosse sealed a 14-8 victory over the Villanova Wildcats on April 13 on their home field after a 9-8 comeback by their opponent. In the last twelve minutes, the Pioneers scored five goals to close their win over the Wildcats.
With the win, Denver moved to a 9-4 record on the year and a 4-2 record in the BIG EAST.
The game started out neck-and-neck as the Wildcats scored the first two goals of the game, which were answered by four Denver goals scored, including back-to-back goals from sophomore midfielder Molly Little (Tiverton, R.I.), to take a 5-2 lead. DU led 6-3 at the half.
In the second half, Villanova stormed back with a 5-3 run to close Denver’s lead to just one goal at 9-8, to which the Pioneers responded with the final five goals of the game to secure the win.
Junior attack Julia Feiss (Baltimore, Md.) led the offense with four goals, three of which came in the first half, and fellow junior attacker Kendra Lanuza (Littleton, Colo.) had a two goal, two assist night for four points as well. Freshman attack Bea Behrins (Basking Ridge, N.J.) contributed in key moments of the contest, scoring the final three goals of the game to secure the win. It was her first collegiate hat trick. Behrins also had an assist in the second half, her first collegiate assist, finishing the game tied for a team-high four points.
On the defensive end, sophomore Carson Gregg, junior Nicki Wilkinson and Little recorded two ground balls each and six different players recorded a caused turnover in the game (Gregg, redshirt junior Katherine Fischer, junior Caroline Lewis, Little, senior Riley Eggeman and Milburn) to anchor the defense. Juniors Maddie Baum and Kennedy Milburn each had four draw controls on the game to lead the Pioneers in the category.
In net, Gregg made four saves in the win. Denver’s defense held the Wildcats for 23:43 without a goal in the first half, as well as a stretch of 12:13 in the second half and the final 12:36 without a Villanova goal. Denver had the advantage in shots over Villanova 37-15, allowing just 12 shots on goal by the Wildcats, while the Pioneers registered 28 shots on goal against the Wildcats. The Pioneers also led in ground balls (11-7), draw controls (13-11) and caused turnovers (7-4). The Pioneers were 20-22 on clears in the game as well.
Denver heads to Milwaukee to play the Marquette Golden Eagles on April 18. On April 21, DU will host the Florida Gators at noon. The game will be the last home game of the regular season, in which we will honor our DU seniors.
