A conference title defense from the women’s lacrosse squad, a team podium finish for the men’s golf team and a first-round appearance in the NCAA Championships for the women’s tennis squad.
Here’s what happened last week in University of Denver athletics.
Women’s Lacrosse
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Men’s Lacrosse
The No. 9/9 men’s lacrosse squad was in Wisconsin this past week also competing in the Big East conference tournament. They upended Villanova in the semi-final matchup Thursday afternoon, 16-9, but the team fell short in the championship to Georgetown University Saturday afternoon, 5-14. The action started Thursday afternoon, and Denver kept up a consistent output of offense in all four quarters against the Wildcats. Two hat tricks and a four-goal contest from junior midfielder Michael Lampert (Wayland, Mass.), sophomore Noah Manning (Victoria, B.C) and senior attack JJ Sillstrop (Encinitas, Calif.) lifted the Crimson and Gold on the offensive side of the field. On the defensive side, the team forced five turnovers and picked up 29 ground balls. Junior goalie Malcolm Kleban (New York, N.Y.) made eight saves on the night, with five of those coming in the first half.
After allowing six goals in the second half, DU kept up the high-scoring pace against the Wildcats, scoring nine goals of their own to advance to Saturday’s championship game. In Saturday’s game, the Hoyas’ defense was instrumental to their victory as they held the Crimson and Gold to a season-low five goals. Georgetown forced DU to turn the ball over seven times and picked up six more ground balls. They held Sillstrop to two goals and the Denver offense to only one goal in the first half. After the Big East championship game loss, the team was in contention to be selected to the NCAA Championship bracket but was unfortunately not selected in the 17-team field. The men’s lacrosse season is officially over.
Women’s Tennis
The No. 48 women’s squad competed in the first round of the NCAA Championships against No. 17 Oklahoma State on Friday and ultimately fell short to the Cowboys, 4-1. The team started out strong, capturing the doubles point to start the match. Fifth-year Taylor Melville (Duluth, Ga.) combined with freshman Claudia Martinez de Velasco (Madrid, Spain) to win the No. 2 matchup, and freshman Caroline Driscoll (Brookline, Mass.) and Louise Wikander (Helsingborg, Sweden) worked to win the No. 3 doubles matchup. The team was unsuccessful in the singles matchups, losing each finished singles matchup in straight sets. The season is over for the team, but Melville will be competing in the NCAA Women’s Tennis Championships as an individual in the singles matchup. She awaits her placement in the field in the coming weeks and will travel to Orlando, Florida for the tournament on May 22-27.
Men’s Golf
The men’s golf squad capped their season off with a second-place finish in the Summit League Championships this past week in Lincoln, Nebraska. After the second round of the tournament, DU had the lead by seven strokes heading into the final round but was unable to outperform Kansas City, who had the lowest team round of the tournament to take first place from Denver. Individually, graduate student and Summit League First-Team nominee Carson Griggs (Sand Springs, Okla.) finished his collegiate career with a podium finish alongside sophomore Alex Gibalevich (Studio City, Calif.). Griggs was the first golfer to score under par in the tournament, doing so in the second round, and he finished overall with a solid score of five strokes over par.
Women’s Golf
The women’s golf squad will be starting their road to a national championship in the NCAA Regionals on May 8. They will play three rounds through May 10 in San Antonio, Texas at TPC San Antonio. They must place in the top five of the 18-team field in order to advance to the NCAA Championships tournament which will take place on May 19-24 in Scottsdale, Arizona.
