NEWTON, Mass. – Graduate student Bea Behrins set the school record for goals in a single season and helped the Denver Pioneers women's lacrosse team defeat the Vermont Catamounts 16-3 on Friday afternoon to advance to the next round the NCAA Tournament.
 
"We knew defensively they were a really good team, one of the top teams in the nation in caused turnovers," Behrins said. "We came in with the mindset of that we had to attack them and not be afraid to go to the net. Across the field we were really smart with our decision making and it showed."
 
DU will now play Boston College on Sunday at 11 a.m. MT at Newton Campus Lacrosse and Soccer Field. BC is hosting this regional and earned a first-round bye as the No. 3 overall seed in the tournament.
 
Behrins led the Pioneers with four goals and two assists in Round 1, and her last tally with 1:55 left in the third quarter marking her 68th of the season to surpass Kristie Leggio's previous record of 67 that she set in both 2006 and 2007.
 
"I didn't know about it until (associate head coach) Brice [Queener] said something to me the other day," Behrins said. "I'm just [focused] on playing my game and wasn't really thinking about that… There have been so many amazing players at Denver, so it's an honor to get that."
 
The Basking Ridge, New Jersey, native now has 196 career goals and is six away from matching the program record of 202 set by Ali Flury from 2007-2010.
 
Junior Julia Gilbert and freshmen Lauren Black and Mollie Estepp also recorded hat tricks with three tallies apiece, and senior Kayla DeRose also had a three-point performance on a goal and two helpers. Black now has hat tricks in each of her last six contests, while Estepp recorded her second three-marker game of her young career.
 
Junior Sydney Collignon scored her first career goal for the Pioneers, and freshman Raegan Wilson also tallied to stretch her goal streak to eight games. Freshman goalkeeper Emelia Bohi started the contest and got the win, while Victoria Macres played the final 7:30 and made four saves.
 
The Pios finished with a 16-7 edge in draw controls and forced 15 turnovers. Kailee Lammers had six draw controls, three caused turnovers and two ground balls, Sammie Morton recorded four draw controls, three ground balls and two caused turnovers and Sam Thacker had three draw controls, three caused turnovers and two ground balls.
 
DU had three runs of five goals in the contest, with the first of which starting on Black's first marker just 62 seconds after the opening draw.
 
Vermont's Ava Vasile scored at 4:58 of the frame, but Denver added five more tallies in the second quarter and led 10-1 at halftime. The Pioneers went on another five-goal run in the second half and outscored the Catamounts 6-2 in the final 30 minutes of play.
 
Denver's 13-goal win was its largest margin of victory since defeating Butler 17-3 on March 19, 2021 and the program's largest ever in the postseason (conference or national tournament).
 
 
SCORING SUMMARY
1st Quarter
13:58 DU (1-0) – Lauren Black (1)
12:12 DU (2-0) – Mollie Estepp (1), assist by Sloane Kipp
10:24 DU (3-0) – Julia Gilbert (1)
6:42 DU (4-0) – Mollie Estepp (2)
5:11 DU (5-0) – Sydney Collignon (1), assist by Bea Behrins
4:58 UVM (5-1) – Ava Vasile (1)
 
2nd Quarter
10:29 DU (6-1) – Lauren Black (2), free position shot
9:24 DU (7-1) – Julia Gilbert (2)
5:23 DU (8-1) – Bea Behrins (1)
2:34 DU (9-1) – Julia Gilbert (2)
1:18 DU (10-1) – Bea Behrins
 
3rd Quarter
13:20 UVM (10-2) – Kerry Gerety (1)
10:45 DU (11-2) – Bea Behrins (3), assist by Kayla DeRose (UP)
5:04 DU (12-2) – Lauren Black (3)
1:55 DU (13-2) – Bea Behrins (4)
 
4th Quarter
12:40 DU (14-2) – Mollie Estepp (3), assist by Bea Behrins
10:52 DU (15-2) – Raegan Wilson (1)
7:45 UVM (15-3) – Maris Large (1), assist by Meghan O'Connor
5:38 DU (16-3) – Kayla DeRose (1)
 

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