USC downs Buffs in title game

COLLEGE LACROSSE

Top-seeded Trojans win Pac-12 tournament, 12-6

The Colorado women’s lacrosse team hit the end of the line.

Unable to generate a consistent threat against top-seeded USC, the Buffaloes dropped a 12-6 decision against the Trojans on Saturday in the Pac-12 Conference championship game in Berkeley.

The loss likely ends CU’s season, as the Buffs entered the tournament at No. 53 in the RPI before defeating Oregon and Stanford in the first two rounds. The Buffs (11-8) fell to 0-4 all-time in the Pac-12 title game.

“USC is a great team that put us under a lot of pressure, but we’re capable of handling it better,” CU head coach Ann Elliott Whidden said. “I think just some of that tiredness from playing three games in four days caught up to us and cost us some opportunities in some key moments where we could have tried to switch the momentum.

“Outside of that, I thought we played hard, we competed on both ends, and we played the whole game with a good mindset and mentality, and this team has a lot to be proud of there.”

No. 17 ranked USC jumped on the third-seeded Buffs quickly, taking a 4-0 lead at the end of the first quarter and a 7-3 lead at halftime. CU battled to within 8-6 on a Morgan Pence goal with 10 minutes, 6 seconds remaining in the third quarter, but the Buffs were held scoreless the rest of the way while the Trojans scored the game’s final four goals.

Pence provided the bulk of the offense for the Buffs, recording a career-high five goals. Charlie Rudy finished with one goal and one assist. CU goalie Grace Donnelly was under pressure the entire match and recorded 11 saves. USC (16-3) enjoyed a 23-10 advantage in shots on goal.

CU began the season with the first 0-4 start in program history but rallied to go 11-4 the rest of the way, with three of those final four defeats occurring against USC. The Buffs’ six goals on Saturday was their third-lowest total of the season, topping only a pair of five-goal games during the season-opening four-game losing streak (at Louisville, home against Michigan).

Yet in a down year for the Pac-12 — Colorado’s win against Stanford in the semifinals might make USC the only Pac-12 team in the NCAA Tournament — the Buffs are unlikely to receive a bid to the 29-team field. CU went to the tournament in three consecutive seasons between 2017 and 2019, but is set to miss the field for the third straight time since (there was no tournament in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic).

Pence, Rudy and Donnelly all were named to the all-tournament team.

“I think we’ve grown a lot since the beginning of this season,” Elliott Whidden said. “It stinks for us to be in this position because I think this team could compete in the NCAA Tournament, but because of our slow start it kind of cost us any chance of getting in without winning today. That part hurts. I think I could have done a better job in the beginning of the season to help us be in a different position now and these guys deserve that. So that part is on me.

“But I think the future for us moving forward is exactly what you saw this weekend, you know. It’s very bright for us, and we’re excited about this team and how they represented us this week.”