NASHVILLE, Tenn.-- Trailing 9-5 after the first 30 minutes of play at VU Soccer/ Lacrosse Complex on Saturday afternoon, the Denver Pioneers rallied in the second half, scoring six unanswered goals in the half to take the 11-10 victory over the Vanderbilt Commodores.

With the win, the Pioneers locked up the No. 3 seed in next week's BIG EAST tournament and will play the No. 2 seed Georgetown Hoyas on May 3 at 5 p.m. MT.

The visitors got out to a slow start in the game, going the first 12 minutes of action without a goal. Denver tried to make a run at the Vanderbilt lead late in the first half, cutting three four-goal deficits ( 5-1, 6-2 and 7-3) to two at 7-5 with just 1:12 left before the half, but Vanderbilt regained the four-goal edge going into the break.

Having been 0-for-3 when trailing at the half this season, the odds weren't in the Pioneers' favor, but the defense played lights out in the remaining 30 minutes to allow the offense opportunities to come back.

In the second half, the Pioneers took control, outshooting the Commodores 16-7 (8-4 in shots on goal), causing 10 turnovers and going a perfect 10-for-10 in clears, all attributing to their comeback.

Kendra Lanuza led the team with four goals, tying her career high, and a game-high two assists.

Julia Feiss added two goals, while Kennedy Milburn, Quintin Hoch-Bullen, Bea Behrins, Elizabeth Behrins and Riley Eggeman each tallied a goal. Eggeman and Hoch-Bullen were also credited with one assist to accompany Lanuza's two.

Eggeman had a team- and career-high four draw controls and three caused turnovers (tying her career high) on the afternoon to spark the comeback and Milburn anchored the defense with four ground balls to go with her goal, and was responsible for several of Denver's successful clears.

Maddie Baum recorded two draw controls to bring her season total to 82, moving her into second in program history in the number of draw controls by an individual in a single-season. Coincidentally enough, Ellie Knott also reached 82 against Vanderbilt last year to set the program record, before adding 11 more in the remaining games.

In net, Carson Gregg made six saves, standing as a last line of defense behind a defense that didn't allow a Vanderbilt goal for the first 24:14 of the second half, allowing just one goal in the second half.

Denver led Vanderbilt in shots by a slim margin of 27-26, 18-16 in shots on goal, as well as 14-11 in caused turnovers and 25-24 in ground balls. The Pioneers also had fewer turnovers in the contest, 19-15.

Half of Vanderbilt's goals came on free-position opportunities, going 5-of-8, compared to Denver, who was only able to score one goal on two chances.

Vanderbilt took control early, jumping out to an early 3-0 lead on two free-position goals. It was an unlikely player who got the Pioneers on the board, with defender Milburn taking a Katherine Fischer pass on a clear and driving to the net for an unassisted goal almost 12 minutes into the game (18:22).

The home team added two more goals to push the deficit to four at 5-1 before Elizabeth Behrins found the back of the net on an Eggeman pass with 13:05 to play in the half.

After the Commodores scored on a free-position attempt with 9:20 on the clock, Lanuza tallied her first goal of the afternoon on an unassisted goal 48 seconds later (8:32) to make it 6-3.

Once again, Vandy got the goal back on a free-position goal (7:14) and there was a stretch of over five minutes before either team would score.

Luckily, the next team to score was Denver, with Milburn picking up a ground ball on an attempted Vanderbilt clear, who passed it to Lanuza, who then found Bea Behrins with 1:55 remaining in the half. The Pioneers made it back-to-back goals with another Lanuza unassisted goal 43 seconds later, bringing the Crimson and Gold within two.

However, Vanderbilt would go on the score the final two goals of the half with 39 and eight seconds remaining, respectively, to give the Commodores a 9-5 halftime lead.

The Pioneers scored four goals in the first 10 minutes of the half to erase the half time deficit and tie the game from four different contributors.

Eggeman was the first to score in the second half on an unassisted goal with 25:44 to play, joined shortly after by Feiss (24:41) on a Lanuza assist. Feiss' goal was the 40^th of the season for the junior attacker, and continued her streak of tallying a goal to 28 games.

Lanuza's third goal, also unassisted, with 21:13 remaining cut the deficit to one, and Hoch-Bullen evened the score at nine on a free-position goal 1:09 later. Lanuza and Hoch-Bullen teamed up on a fastbreak opportunity created by a caused turnover by Audrey Schreck and a Milburn ground ball to give Denver its first lead of the afternoon on Lanuza's fourth goal, and 22^nd goal of the season, at 17:46.

Feiss added a final goal for Denver with 7:09 remaining to push the lead to two goals at 11-9 and capped a 6-0 run for the visitors.

Vanderbilt would record the final goal of the afternoon with 5:46 on the board on a free-position goal, but in the remaining minutes of the game, Denver's defense prevented VU from finding the tying goal.

In Vandy's final possessions, Fischer caused a turnover, leading to Caroline Lewis picking up the ground ball, Molly Little caused a turnover and collected the ground ball and Gregg made a save with 1:50 left. Vanderbilt had one final opportunity with 27 seconds to go, but a blocked shot and an Elizabeth Behrins' ground ball allowed the Pioneers to run out the clock and leave Nashville with the 11-10 victory.

UP NEXT: The Denver Pioneers secured the No. 3 seed in next week's BIG EAST tournament and will play the No. 2 seed Georgetown Hoyas on Thursday, May 3 in Gainesville, Fla. The semifinal is scheduled for 5 p.m. MT, after the first semifinal concludes against No. 1 Florida and No. 4 Marquette.

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