Another game, another dominating victory for the DU women’s lacrosse team that defeated Saint Mary’s 20-7 at home on Friday. The No. 17 Pioneers improved to 13-2 overall on the season and 3-0 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation and continue to head toward their first-ever NCAA appearance.
“It is definitely a goal, but we have never won our conference championship either. That’s a big deal as well, as much as we are striving for the NCAA’s, we want to focus on conference championships first and foremost,” said Head Coach Liza Kelly.
DU scored the first six goals of the game, including one by junior Megan Carver which found the back of the net just 29 seconds in. After St. Mary’s put a point on the board, the Pioneers responded with five more goals and went into halftime with a comfortable 11-3 lead. The Gaels opened the second half with a goal of their own before Denver responded with yet another run, this time scoring seven consecutive goals and going on to the 20-7 victory.
The Pioneers were led as usual by senior Kristie Leggio, who netted four goals and two assists. Freshman Ali Flury added three goals and an assist. Sophomore Karen Morton, Carver and sophomore Steph Coyne each scored two goals and junior Megan Tyrie put in a goal and dished out two assists. Fifteen of the Pioneers finished with at least one point, while 12 of them scored at least one goal.
Denver currently has the second-ranked scoring offense in the country and their 20 goals on the afternoon ranks second-most for the season and sixth-most in school history.
Leggio made history last-season being named the first DU women’s lacrosse All-American while scoring a school-record 67 goals and 37 assists for 104 points. This season the senior has 50 goals and 33 assists, with two regular-season games remaining and up to four post-season contests.
“I think it has been awesome. I think this season has been great. For me it has been a great senior year,” said Leggio.
DU has outshot opponents on the season 509 to 340 and that has resulted in a 238 to 132 goal advantage.
Denver will next play Saturday at 1 p.m. when the Pioneers host Oregon at Peter Barton Stadium.
“I think we just need to focus on improving every day. We did a lot of scrimmaging this week and we will continue doing that and pinpointing the things that we did wrong and correcting those,” said Kelly.
While Kelly does have experience roaming the sidelines, she is in her first season at DU and has coached the Pioneers to an impressive 13-2 record thus far.
“A little bit of a surprise. I knew I was coming into a good program. It has exceeded my expectations,” said Kelly about this season.
