EVANSTON, Ill.  – The [7] University of Denver women's lacrosse team never trailed in a back-and-forth game en-route to a 15-13 win over Stanford on Friday evening at Lanny and Sharon Martin Stadium on the campus of Northwestern University.
 
Inside the Box Score:
Bea Behrins and Eliza Radochonski tied the program record for goals in an NCAA Tournament game held by teammate Quintin Hoch-Bullen to lead the Pioneers offensive attack. Hannah Liddy and Kailey Conry continued to feed the ball to their teammates, tying the program's NCAA Tournament single-game assist record with four apiece. Conry added the opening goal of the contest for a five-point night. Denver had five other goal scorers all score once.
 
On the defensive side, Sammie Morton caused three turnovers, and Molly Little and Sam Thacker finished with two apiece. Morton also added a game-high five ground balls.
 
In the draw circle, Denver held its own with the third-ranked draw team in the country winning 12 of the 30 draws, led by three apiece from Behrins and Little.  
 
First Half:
Stanford and Denver traded the first eight goals of the game. Denver scored the odd numbered goals in the spurt and Stanford had the tying goal each time in the first 17 minutes. Conry got Denver on the board 1:50 into the contest with her 17^th of the campaign. Behrins scored her first goal of a first-half hat trick to make it 2-1 with 25:35 to go in the opening period. Julia Gilbert made it 3-2 with 22:21 to go to make it 3-2 Pios and Caroline Wiseman gave Denver its fourth lead of the afternoon with 17:47 to go.
 
After Stanford tied it up with 13:14 to go, Denver ended the half on a 4-1 run in the final 9:18. Behrins' second off Conry's first of two assists made it 5-4. Radochonski's 43^rd and 44^th goal of the season was sandwiched around a Stanford goal. Radochonski's second tally of the half came with 15 seconds left, which looked to end the first half scoring.
 
Rado and the Pioneers weren't satisfied. Radochonski won just Denver's fourth draw of the day, and fed it to Liddy who was all-alone behind the Cardinal defense. Liddy sent her shot wide, but backed up the shot and restarted quickly before feeding Behrins on the crease, who completed her hat trick with 0.3 seconds on the game clock to push the Pioneers advantage to three heading in the intermission.
 
Second Half:
The Cardinal went on a run of their own to start the second half. Mikaela Watson got the scoring started for Stanford in the half to make it 8-6. Radochonski pushed the Pioneers lead back to three to complete her hat trick with 27:44 on the clock. A Stanford goal from Katy Gilbert and two from Katherine Gjertsen in a span of less than three minutes tied the game back up with 22:49 to go.
 
A pair of free-position goals canceled each other out to get both teams to double digits. Behrins' fourth of the evening made it 10-9 Pios, but Anna Griffith on the other end evened things at 10-10 with 19:34 to go.
 
Nearly six minutes later, Behrins scored her fifth of the night in transition off a feed from Little, and then Little scored off the following draw control 12 seconds later to push the Pioneers lead back to two with 13:08 to go.
 
Stanford got back-to-back goals of its own with tallies from Ailish Kelly and Ali Baiocco in a 31 second span to tie things back up at 12-12 with 9:23 to go.  
 
Radochonski scored her second and third goals of the half and her fourth and fifth of the game 1:23 apart to put Denver up two goals once again at 14-12 with 7:18 to play. With an empty net and extra attacker on, Stanford's Ali Baiocco scored her 50^th of the season to cut the Denver lead back to one, but Mackenzie Wallevand's first of the day put the game to bed with 1:05 to go to restore a two goal lead at 15-13.
 
 
Significant Stats:

• Bea Behrins and Eliza Radochonski scored five goals apiece to tie Denver single-game NCAA Tournament record, matching Quintin Hoch-Bullen's five in the 2019 NCAA Tournament Second Round against Michigan.
• Hannah Liddy and Kailey Conry tied Denver's single-game NCAA Tournament assists record with four, matching Jill Remenapp's four in the Pioneers 2013 NCAA Tournament First Round game against Jacksonville.
• Denver improved to 5-0 in the NCAA Tournament First Round and 6-4 in the NCAA Tournament overall.
• The Pioneers nine assists as a team tied Denver's NCAA Tournament single-game record.
• Denver improved to 13-18 against former MPLL and MPSF Rival Stanford, stretching the Pioneers win streak in the series to five games.
• Denver has won 16-straight games.
• Hannah Liddy moved into third in career assists in a Denver uniform with 110, and fourth in single-season assists with 46.

Up Next: Denver will take on [2] Northwestern in the second round of the 2021 NCAA Women's Lacrosse Tournament on Sunday at 11 a.m. MT. The game will be streamed live on ESPN3.
 
CORONAVIRUS UPDATES: For the latest University of Denver updates on the coronavirus, click here.

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