Most of the top scorers in the 12-year history of the Colorado women’s lacrosse team delivered big scoring numbers almost immediately.

Darby Kiernan, CU’s all-time leader in goals and assists, recorded 52 goals as a freshman. Charlie Rudy, who ranks second in goals and points, posted 26 goals as a rookie. Ashley Stokes graduated last year ranked second in career assists with 70, collecting the first 10 as a freshman.

Instant success wasn’t the path traveled by Madeline Pisani.

A fifth-year senior, Pisani’s name will end up right alongside CU’s other all-time scorers. In her case, however, it wasn’t until last year that the points began to pile up. That hot streak has continued through the first half of this season, and Pisani will be coming off one of the top performances of her career when the Buffs continue Big 12 Conference play Sunday afternoon at Arizona State.“I just wasn’t OK with being just a role player,” Pisani said. “I knew my potential, and I knew what I could bring to the team and I wanted to help us win. Just that extra work every day after practice, the extra shooting that no one ever saw. And then a lot of it was conversations with older girls that had that spot and respect that I was kind of driving for. So I credit a lot of that to them, because they kind of helped me up this little path I could try and follow.”

Pisani redshirted as a true freshman in 2021 and played just 13 games over the next two seasons, collecting eight goals and one assist. Unsatisfied with being a role player, Pisani erupted last year with 67 goals, trailing only the 70 posted by Kiernan in 2018 among CU’s season leaders. With seven goals during last week’s Big 12-opening win at San Diego State, Pisani matched a career high and became the seventh CU player to surpass the 100-goal mark.

Pisani enters Sunday’s matchup at ASU with 125 career points, needing just one more to crack CU’s all-time top-10 list.

“For Madeline, it’s just honestly her work ethic and her determination,” CU head coach Ann Elliott Whidden said. “I think she’s the type of player that came in with goals, and obviously there were challenges for her along the way. Things weren’t necessarily easy and set up for her. She spent a couple years in a position of if you go on the field and you make a mistake, you’re probably not going back on the field for a while. And that’s a tough role to be in.

“For the people that can take on that challenge, it builds character, it builds determination, it builds an understanding of what it’s like to have to execute under that type of pressure. I think those couple years, where she really internally had to battle with herself and keep pushing herself, she stuck with it. There’s no one on this team that works harder than Madeline.”

The Buffs had been 0-4 away from home before opening Big 12 play with a road win last week at San Diego State.It was a rough start for CU this year against a tough schedule, as it opened 1-4 while facing a ranked matchup each time. The Buffs have answered with wins in four of their past five games, and as of Saturday they ranked a solid No. 22 in the RPI.

“I definitely feel like we’re more than prepared for conference, and it was nice to get that first conference win,” Pisani said. “I think that difficult RPI and the difficult teams that we’ve been playing prepared us for conference.”