DENVER -- The top-seeded University of Denver women's lacrosse team will face the number four seed Marquette on Thursday afternoon in the Big East Tournament Semifinal matchup at 4 p.m. MT at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium. 

Thursday's meeting marks the first time the two teams have ever met in the postseason and the Pioneers are a perfect 11-0 all-time against the Golden Eagles. Denver defeated Marquette, 15-9, in their meeting earlier this season on April 1 at Peter Barton. 

PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
Denver captured its seventh consecutive Big East regular season title with an 11-5 win over Georgetown on April 25 in Washington D.C. 
The Pioneers open postseason play with the semifinal round of the Big East conference tournament vs. No. 4 Marquette on April 30 at Peter Barton Stadium.
The Big East conference championship game will take place on May 2 at 1 p.m. MT and feature the winner of semifinal #1 vs. semifinal #2.

BIG TIME IN THE BIG EAST
Olivia Ripple was voted the unanimous Big East Attacker of the Year, Lexi Gwaku was named Goalkeeper of the Year and Liza Kelly and the Denver staff were named coaching staff of the year.
Ripple and Gwaku are joined on the All-Big East First Team by Caroline Keil, Megan Klingenberg and Landry Grover.
Ryan Dineen, Eva Thomsen-Marr and Carly Frohnapfel were named to the All Big East Second Team.
Ripple marks the seventh consecutive Pioneer to be awarded Attacker of the Year honors and the junior led Denver with 72 points on 59 goals and 13 assists and leads the Big East with 3.69 goals per game. 
Gwaku is the second-straight Pioneer to earn Big East Goalkeeper of the Year honors and leads the Big East and is third in the nation with 7.21 goals against average and a 0.495 save percentage. 
Keil leads the nation in free-position goals, averaging 1.25 tallies per game and ranks second in the Big East with 48 goals. The redshirt-sophomore had multi-goal performances in all but two games this season, including a career-high seven goals in the win over Vanderbilt.
Klingenberg and Grover both started in every game this season and average 2.06 and 1.38 caused turnovers per game, respectively. The senior defenders anchor the number two scoring defense in the nation, allowing just 6.81 goals per game.
Dineen and Thomsen-Marr lead the Pioneers with 22 assists and average 1.38 assists per game. Dineen has tallied 26 goals this season, including eight multi-goal performances while Thomsen-Marr tacked on 37 goals and recorded one or more goal in every game this season.
Frohnapfel has started every game this season and ranks third on the team with 19 caused turnovers. The senior defender has been a critical member of the Pioneers' success on the draw with 31 wins in the circle and scored her first career goal in the win over Xavier.

FREE POSITION FIREPOWER
Nine different Pioneers have recorded at least one free position goal this season: Ripple, Keil, Thomsen-Marr, Dineen, Mutch, Bowers, Harris, Wilmot and Cho. 
Keil leads the nation with 1.25 free position goals per game. Her 20 free position goals are  the most by a Pioneer in a single season, breaking the record set by Julia Gilbert in 2023.

A BALANCED OFFENSE
The Pioneers rank 21st in the country in scoring offense, averaging 14.13 goals per game.
Denver has six different attackers in double-digit goals so far this season - Olivia Ripple (59), Caroline Keil (48),  Eva Thomsen-Marr (37), Ryan Dineen (26), Caroline Bowers (18) and Karleigh Mutch  (17).
The Crimson and Gold have had five or more goal scorers in all but one game this season.
Ripple leads the team with five game-winning goals.

BETWEEN THE PIPES 
Sophomore goalkeeper Lexi Gwaku leads the Big East and is fourth in the nation with 7.38 goals against average an has recorded 99 saves through 16 contests.
The New Jersey native recorded her 100th career save in the Pioneers' 14-2 with at Butler on March 28, becoming the seventh-fastest Pioneer to hit the mileston in 23 career games.
She tied her career-best nine saves in wins over Arizona State and Marquette and the loss to No. 16 Colorado. 

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