DENVER - In a fundraiser for women's lacrosse, a team comprised of faculty and staff shocked the DU campus on Friday afternoon with a 6-5 victory over the DU women's lacrosse squad.
After falling behind 2-0 early in the game, a beautiful 30 yard run by Administrative Assistant for External Operations Marianne Leiby set up the faculty's first goal of the game. Leiby passed it off to Associate AD for Diversity, SASS and Community Relations Cindi Nagai, who picked it up off the turf with her bare hand and threw it into the back of the net.
Women's basketball assistant coach Shelley Sheetz evened the score at 2-2 on a goal of questionable legality, using her basketball knowledge to post-up her defender before spinning her stick around and throwing it into the back of the net.
"It started with Ron Grahame, and then went to Jon Boos I boxed them out, and if you ain't cheatin you ain't trying," Sheetz said sarcastically after her goal. "That's how we play."
After the faculty took its first lead of the game, the Pioneers went on a roll with back-to-back goals from sophomore midfielder Gretchen Nace (Rochester, N.Y.) to put the lacrosse team back up by a goal.
Naigi took matters into her own hands, literally, tying the score 4-4 by throwing another shot into the back of the net.
Denver struck back to make it 5-4, despite the best efforts from Assistant Vice Chancellor/Senior Associate Athletic Director Ron Grahame, who had it go off his body and into the back of the net. Grahame, an All-American goalie for DU in 1973, provided some highlights in the match, including a few magnificent saves to keep the game close in the early going.
Sheetz, a basketball All-American, would score again to even the match for the third time with a goal of much more legality than her first.
The call for "next goal wins" came from the official, and the faculty and staff team came together in the moment of urgency to produce its most spectacular of play in the game.
After the staff defense resorted to illegally checking the Pioneers to win the ball, marketing intern Ryan Thomas picked up the loose ball, and the entire team pushed forward for the game-winner. Former men's basketball star, David Kummer netted the golden goal for the faculty.
