The University of Colorado women’s lacrosse team lost its first game of the season to No. 19 University of Denver on Wednesday 10-6 at Kittredge Field.
The Buffs took a 5-2 lead at halftime and, despite the Pioneers making the first goal within three minutes, the Buffs had a strong first half. Within the first four minutes of the game the Buffs scored four goals, taking a 4-1 lead.
Two minutes after the Pioneers made the first goal of the game, sophomore midfielder Marie Moore made the first goal of the season for the Buffs.
Following the excitement, sophomore midfielder Johnna Fusco scored three goals within six minutes.
“We were all pretty nervous coming out here for the first game of the season, but we took that and just brought it onto the field,” Fusco said. “We wanted to show Denver what we are all about and give them a great game and let them know we could compete.”
Soon after Fusco scored a goal for the Buffs to take the lead 2-1, freshman attacker Carly Cox scored her first career goal for the Buffs.
The Pioneers had seven turnovers and only seven attempted shots at the goal by the end of the fist half, while the Buffs had only one turnover and eleven attempted shots at the goal.
The second half went much differently for Colorado. In the first nine minutes, the Pioneers came within one point of the Buffs (5-4) causing CU to take its first time out of the second half.
The half continued to go downhill as the Pioneers took the lead over the Buffs 9-6. Then in the last forty seconds of the game, the Pioneers made one more goal to end the game with a losing score for the Buffs 10-6.
“We turned over the ball a lot,” said Colorado head coach Ann Elliott. “You can’t turn over the ball like that against a good team and expect to come out on top. If you turn over the ball you are limiting a lot of good opportunities.”
The Buffs had a total of six turnovers in the game and five of them were from the second half.
Colorado plays at noon on Saturday against Marquette at Kittredge Field.
Contact CU Independent staff sports writer Lisa Marcum at lisa.marcum@colorado.edu
