JACKSONVILLE – The No. 6 University of Denver women's lacrosse program used an 8-1 start to pull away early from No 4 Boston College en-route to a 13-8 victory on Sunday afternoon at Rock Stadium on the campus of Jacksonville University.
 
The win was Denver's second against a top-5 program this season, with the first coming at No. 5 Maryland on March 5. Sunday's victory ties the highest ranked opponent Denver has defeated, matching the Pioneers 11-7 win over No. 4 Stony Brook at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium in February, 2019.
 
Inside the Box Score:
Ellie Curry and Raegan Wilson finished with hat tricks to lead the Denver offense. Julia Gilbert and Caroline Colimore added two goals apiece to round out Denver's multi-goal scorers.
 
Curry added an assist for four points as part of her third career hat trick. Wilson's hat trick was her second this season and the third of her career.
 
Abby Jenkins led Denver to a 15-10 margin in the draw circle, pulling down five of her own. Trinity McPherson added four and a caused turnover.
 
Denver's defense produced 12 caused turnovers, reaching double figures for the ninth-straight game to start the season, two games shy of Denver's record to start a season (11 in 2021). Bryn McCaughey, Sam Thacker, Ellie Curry and goalie Emelia Bohi each had a pair of caused turnovers. Bohi made six stops to lead the goalie battle in the contest.
 
Denver cruised to the top-5 win while taking only one free-position shot (0-1).
 
First Quarter:
Denver blanked Boston College 6-0 in the opening quarter to set the tone in Jacksonville. After a scoreless opening nine minutes, Sloane Kipp got Denver on the board with an unassisted tally. Curry's first two of the day 55 seconds apart followed that up to make it 3-0 with 4:10 to go. Just eight seconds later, McPherson hit Lauren Black off the draw for Denver's fourth of the day. McPherson then made it three goals in 19 seconds off the next draw to push Denver's lead to 5-0. Denver's sixth goal in less than four minutes came off the stick of Gilbert to continue to build the momentum for Denver heading into the second.
 
Second Quarter:
Boston College got on the board, but the Pioneers limited the damage quickly as Gilbert added her second on the woman advantage and Wilson cashed in her first of the afternoon off a feed from Kipp to make it 8-1 Denver with 6:16 to play in the frame.
 
BC got the final two of the second quarter to win the stanza, but the Pioneers still carried an 8-3 lead into the locker room.
 
Third Quarter:
Denver got the first two of the second half to keep its distance and push its lead back to seven at 10-3 with 10:55 to play. Wilson's second and Curry's hat trick goal got the third-quarter scoring started.
 
BC ended with the final two of the frame, including a Jenn Medjid woman-up goal to cut the Denver lead to five heading into the final 15 minutes of play at Rock Stadium.
 
Fourth Quarter:
The Eagles got another to cap a 3-0 run with 12:21 to play, but two-straight from Colimore and Wilson's hat trick tally with 1:15 to play gave Denver a seven goal lead once again at 13-6.
 
Boston College got two goals in the final 20 seconds, but Denver secured its first win against a top-four team away from Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium.
 
Game Notes:

• Denver improved to 66-10 in the last five years, the third best record in the country, and three wins behind Boston College (69-15).
• Denver improved to 21-3 as a top-10 team in the country, and improved to 8-30 against teams ranked in the top-10 (2-0 this season).
• The Pioneers 9-0 start extends the program's best start in school history.
• The top scoring defense in the country Denver held the 16^th-best offense in Boston College to nearly seven goals below its average.
• Abby Jenkins pulled her career draw control total to 217, tied with Maddie Baum (2016-19) for the second-most in Denver's DI history (Kiki Boone – 1^st – 225). 

UP NEXT: The Pioneers will stay in Jacksonville for the first half of spring break before the Pioneers take on the nationally-ranked Dolphins at Rock Stadium on Wednesday at 11 a.m. MT    

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