22-0; still the only undefeated team left in women’s college lacrosse.
Facing a comeback situation last Thursday afternoon, the University of Denver women’s lacrosse team delivered a second-half surge against the University of North Carolina to advance to the national semifinals. Senior attack Julia Gilbert (Mclean, Va.) and graduate attack Kayla DeRose (Gaithersburg, Md.) scored two clutch goals each in the contest to lift DU to their historic 5-4 victory.
“I’m so proud of these guys,” Head Coach Liza Kelly exclaimed post-game as she hugged Gilbert and senior defender Sam Thacker (Lutherville, Md.).
It was the lowest scoring output since their first game of the season against the University of Louisville when they also defeated the Cardinals 5-4. Kelly said she and her staff knew this game would be a defensive battle.
“I honestly knew it was going to look like this,” she said. “We talked as a staff after this weekend…and we said we had to be comfortable with a one-goal game.”
Kelly even went so far as to thank Louisville and their head coach for preparing the Crimson and Gold for these types of games.
“We can win ugly. We’ve done it all year and we’re okay with it…we are who we are,” she explained.
The No. 5 seated Denver got off to a hot start in the contest and freshman attack Ryan Dineen (Huntingtown, Md.) found the back of the net in the first minute of the game. She was able to cradle her way into the 8-meter arc and register her 30th goal of the season.
The hot start would prove to be brief as the Tar Heels scored the next four goals over 29 minutes of action. But the DU defense would show why they are the best unit in the country as they held North Carolina scoreless after the 5:22 mark in the second quarter until the final buzzer sounded.
“Honestly when we get scored on, I think we actually like it,” Thacker explained. “Because it shows where we need to fix, and then we fix it.”
The deficit at halftime gave the opportunity for the older leaders of the team to lead the charge for the Crimson and Gold. Fifth-year senior DeRose and fourth-year senior Gilbert did just that.
DeRose meticulously inched her way to the net and got Denver within two with a little more than two minutes left in the first half. Gilbert made the margin one after she received a dime from Dineen and buried one past the Tar Heel goalkeeper.
Gilbert was fouled with 8:16 left in the fourth quarter and was given a free position spot. The pressure did not take over Gilbert as she found the back of the net with a low bullet shot.
“All season I just focus on not thinking about when I am shooting,” said Gilbert. “I know my team has faith in me and just to get it done.”
The pressure was also on the Denver offense in the fourth quarter to complete the comeback after Gilbert’s equalizer. The frame would be won by DeRose who fired a shot between the Tar Heel goalkeeper’s legs with almost no time left on the shot clock with a little less than seven minutes in the game. Kelly talked about the great impact DeRose had on the game and what it meant for an older player to do so.
“She’s a fifth-year senior,” Kelly explained. “We’ve got some youth out there, so it was really fun to see [Kayla] step up and lead us today.”
If you were watching the game, or have been following DU women’s lacrosse since they were crowned Big East Champions, you may have seen DU fans in the crowd sporting hot pink hats. Kelly said the combination of the defense unit’s name (Hot Pink) and Boston College’s fans wearing neon t-shirts during their past championship runs inspired the hot pink hats.
“I love the idea that you can look in the stands and see your support around you,” she said. “It’s so cool to look up and see all of our fans and support systems.”
Denver is set to become the most western school to advance to the National Championships. They also look to advance to the first national championship in program history. No matter the location, no matter the opponent, no matter the anxiety, DU will bring their best according to Kelly.
“We have been on a plane for 20,000 miles this year, we have spent 25 nights in a hotel. We have had seven regular season home games,” Kelly reflected. “We don’t care. We are ready to go, we challenged ourselves with our schedule this year, the kids bought in and knew it was going to be hard and they knew we had to fight the entire time. That’s why we won today.”
DU will take on the No.1 seed of the tournament, Northwestern University on May 26 at 1 p.m. MT. The team will take yet another trip to Cary, North Carolina to play at the neutral site of WakeMed Soccer Park. The game will be nationally televised on ESPNU and ESPN+.
