The No. 5 University of Denver women’s lacrosse squad returned to Denver from the East Coast with another piece of hardware that has become well-known to them over the past three seasons. Denver defeated Villanova University Friday afternoon, 12-7 and the University of Connecticut Sunday morning, 11-6 en route to capturing the conference title.
Since the women’s lacrosse squad joined the Big East in 2017, the team has won four straight regular season titles and three straight conference tournament championships. The accolades serve as a testament to how dominant this team has been in one of the best conferences in the country.
The action started Friday afternoon against the Wildcats at the neutral site of Joseph J. Morrone Stadium on UConn’s campus. This was not the first meeting of the season against Villanova, as Denver dominated an April 1 meeting, 17-4. Friday’s contest proved to be no different.
The Wildcats came out of the gate early and scored the first goal of the contest. Denver would answer on the next possession with a goal from junior attack Sloane Kipp (Dallas, Texas). After Kipp’s goal, the team scored the next three goals in the first quarter to give them a three-goal lead going into the second quarter.
Kipp opened up the second quarter with her second goal of the game, and graduate student attack Kayla DeRose (Gaithersburg, Md.) followed up with her first of the game.
Denver dominated in the draw control sector of the contest, which comes as no surprise as they have been doing so all year. The backbone of the draw control domination has been none other than junior draw specialist Abby Jenkins (Richmond, Va.) who controlled seven draws in the contest. With those seven draw controls, Jenkins broke her own program record she set last year for most draw controls in a season.
Both teams scored two more goals to end the second quarter, and, with one more connection, Kipp accomplished her sixth hat trick of the season. Freshman forward Ryan Dineen (Huntingtown, Md.) found the back of the net in the last minute of the first half which was the first of her two-goal contest. Dinnen also picked up three assists to add on to her team-high five points.
Senior attack Julia Gilbert (Mclean, Va.) scored in the fifth possession of the third quarter to open up the action for DU. Before the contest on Thursday, Gilbert was named Big East Co-Attacker of the Year and was given an All-Big East first-team selection as well, the highest individual honor earned in Gilbert’s career.
Senior defender Sam Thacker (Lutherville, Md.) caused a turnover on the defensive side of the field, pushing the ball upfield to DeRose, who clocked her second goal of the contest. Thacker has been the backbone of a tough DU defense this season and was unanimously awarded Big East Defender of the Year for the second year in a row. She was also named to the All-Big East first team alongside Gilbert.
Villanova cut the lead down to five to open up the fourth quarter but it would not be enough as Gilbert scored her second to put the Wildcats in a place where a comeback was impossible. Sophomore attack Lauren Black (New Westminster, B.C) scored a consolation goal with exactly two minutes left in the contest, as the team advanced to Sunday’s championship game.
In surprising fashion, UConn upset Marquette 17-16 in a thrilling overtime contest to advance alongside Denver to the championship game. The Huskies and the Crimson and Gold matched up back on April 8 where Denver came out on top 14-9.
For the second straight game, the opposing team scored first, and the Huskies found the back of the net three minutes into the first quarter. In a defensive standstill, neither squad allowed a goal until the last minute of the quarter when senior attack Charlotte Boote (Towson, Md.) got DU on the board.
Gilbert scored her first of four goals to give DU the lead at the start of the second quarter, but UConn followed 30 seconds later with a goal of their own. Gilbert and Dineen led DU on a four-goal run that gave them a lot of momentum going into halftime. Gilbert found the back of the net twice, and Dineen assisted and scored a goal in the second quarter run.
UConn opened up the third quarter with a goal on the third possession to cut Denver’s lead down to two. The next frame of the third quarter proved to be instrumental in the win for Denver as they would score the next three goals to lift them to a five-goal lead. Gilbert, Kipp and senior midfielder Ellie Curry (Lutherville, Md.) all found the back of the net to secure a comfortable lead for Denver.
Perhaps the most important person in the contest was sophomore goalkeeper Emelia Bohi (Bethesda, Md.) who stepped up and made the most saves in a game she has made all season. She stopped 13 Husky shots, six of those coming on the tough-to-stop free-position shots. She was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Tournament after the contest concluded.
Each team would score two more goals in the fourth quarter and Dineen would add a consolation goal to tally another for a total of four, tying the team-high in the contest. With a final score of 11-6, the Big East conference title is back in the hands of DU for the third straight season.
After the NCAA Selection Show Sunday evening, Denver will be the fifth seed in the field and will play host to the first of the two rounds in the tournament. The University of Southern California will be the opponent in the first-round matchup for Denver and they are slated to play at 3 p.m. on May 12 at Peter Barton Stadium. If DU wins, they will advance to the second round and take on the winner of Virginia and Albany on May 14 at 1 p.m.
