April 17, 2005

Box Score

PALO ALTO, Calif. - Three Pioneers had hat tricks but it was not enough as the University of Denver women's lacrosse team fell to Stanford, 17-14, in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation game on Sunday, April 17 at Maloney Field. The loss snaps the Pioneers' two-game winning streak and drops them to 4-11 overall and 2-2 in the MPSF. The Cardinal improves to 9-5, 5-0. Stanford will be the No. 1 seed in next month's MPSF Championship.

Junior Steph Greenlees (Lake Forest, Ill.) had four goals, while senior Crystal Jack (Kingwood, Texas) and junior Tanya Fuchs (Bay Shore, N.Y.) had the hat tricks.

A goal by sophomore Kate Broderick (Chantilly, Va.) gave Denver an early 1-0 lead at 27:39. Stanford responded with five consecutive goals to open a 5-1 margin at 18:41. Goals from Jack, Fuchs and freshman Kelly O'Connell (Baltimore, Md.) made the score 5-4 at the 13:13 mark.

Stanford's Nina Pantano scored to put the Cardinal back up by two at the 11:40 mark. Tallies from Greenlees and senior Tara Bourdelaise (Grambrills, Md.) tied the scored at score at 6-6 at 5:04. Stanford closed the half with a 4-0 run, giving the Cardinal a 10-6 halftime lead.

Stanford scored the second half's first goal to go up by five, but a Greenlees goal at 26:46 cut the margin back to four. Stanford's Megan McClain scored 18 seconds later to expand the lead to five once again. Scores from Greenlees and Bourdelaise slimmed the lead to 12-9, and put the Pioneers in position to make a comeback.

Megan Burker's goal at 17:25 pushed made the score to 13-9, but Denver inched even closer with tallies by Jack and Fuchs. The score was 13-11 with 15:11 remaining when the Cardinal ran off four consecutive scores to put the game out of reach at 17-11. Fuchs, Greenlees and Jack would all score in the game's final nine minutes, but it was not enough as Stanford held on for a 17-14 win.

Senior goalkeeper Steph Schneider (Leesburg, Va.) and freshman Becky Childs (Phoenix, Md.) combined to make 13 saves for Denver. Laura Shane registered 14 for Stanford.

The Pioneers return to action on Friday, April 22, when they travel to Davis, Calif. to battle MPSF rival UC Davis at 2 p.m. MT.