Stanford and Denver Advance to MPSF Championship Game
May 1, 2010
For box scores and more information, visit the MPSF Tournament Website
Stanford 9, California 7
No. 15 Stanford earned a spot in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championship game with a 9-7 victory over California in the semifinals on Friday afternoon at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium.
The Cardinal's Julie Christy scored three goals and Lauren Schmidt scored two goals with an assist in the victory. Leslie Foard, Catherine Swanson, Claire Hubbard and Leigh Lucas each tallied one goal.
Allie Welsh scored four goals for the Golden Bears, while Vail Horn scored two goals to bring her tournament total to nine goals.
Stanford's Annie Read made seven saves to earn her second win of the tournament. Cal's Allie Shropshire recorded 17 saves, a high for this year's tournament.
Denver 14, UC Davis 9
DENVER - The No. 18 Pioneers advanced to the championship game of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation
tournament after defeating UC Davis 14-9 in the semifinals on Friday evening at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium. The Pioneers, who lost to UC Davis in the quarterfinals of the MPSF tournament last year, were led by Ali Flury (Arnold, Md.), Bonnie Wells (Adelaide, Australia) and the 2010 MPSF Newcomer of the Year Kara Secora (Denver, Colo.) who each scored three goals. Lauren Ciccomascolo (Ladera Ranch, Calif.) recorded two goals and two assists, while Lexi Sanders (Greenwood Village, Colo.) scored one goal and assisted on three.
"We're very excited to have gotten the win against a strong UC Davis team," head coach Liza Kelly said. "I think our nerves got the better of us through some of the game, but we played hard against a tough team, and we are happy to be playing for the championship on Sunday."
Denver built a 9-4 lead going into the half as Flury and Secora each had a hat trick, while Wells, Sanders and Ciccomascolo added tallies of their own.
The Aggies outscored Denver 5-2 to shrink the Pioneer lead to 11-9 with 6:00 left to play. But, a free position goal by Ciccomascolo a minute later and two tallies from Wells sealed the 14-9 victory for DU.
Goalkeeper Ashley Harman (Boyertown, Pa.) made 10 saves in the victory as the Pioneers outshot UC Davis 35-22.
Flury's six caused turnovers tied a season high set by Carrie Gamper (Towson, Md.) against Loyola on March 3.
No. 18 Denver will face No. 15 Stanford, the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in the tournament, respectively, in the MPSF championship game on Sunday at 1 p.m. MT at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium. The game will mark the fourth time in the past five years that the Pioneers and Cardinal will meet in the MPSF Championship game, and Stanford will look for its sixth title.
The winner of the MPSF Championship will host Atlantic 10 Champion UMass on Sat., May 8.