The Oregon women’s lacrosse team is left to grapple with a spectrum of emotions after its weekend in Davis, Calif.
On Thursday, third-year coach Jen Larsen was named Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Coach of the Year and four Oregon athletes received All-Conference Team honors at a pre-tournament banquet. She edged out candidates that included Denver’s Liza Kelly, who led her squad to a 16-3 season, and Stanford’s Michele Uhlfelder, whose team was the first west of the Mississippi River to make it into the NCAA Tournament last year.
Larsen deflected credit to her team, including senior transfer Brooke Dieringer, junior Jen May, and sophomores Alicia Burkhart (who led the team with 48 ground balls) and Ilsa van den Berg, who were selected to the All-MPSF squad.
The weekend then took a turn for the worst for the second-seeded Ducks when they were overpowered in their semifinal match by third-seeded Stanford and lost 8-2.
Oregon ended its season on Sunday with an 8-7 victory against California (7-10 overall) in the third-place game.
In a season where the Ducks (12-7, 5-2 MPSF) earned a program-best record and their best seed in a conference tournament, its win against the Golden Bears in a consolation match offered little consolation.
“We were really upset about the loss (Saturday),” redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Anna Poponyak said in a press release. “We are glad to get the victory (against California), but next year we want a championship, and we still have work to do to get to that point.”
In the four-year history of the MPSF Tournament, a No. 2 seed has never missed the championship game up until Oregon’s failure to do so this year. The Cardinal (9-8, 6-2 MPSF) landed an MPSF Finals berth for a fourth straight year with their win against the Ducks, and Stanford went on to take down first-seeded Denver 12-11 on Sunday to win its third consecutive MPSF Championship.
The Cardinal shut down Oregon defensively to advance and avenge an season-opening loss to the Ducks at Papé Field. Cardinal goalkeeper Laura Shane made 11 saves and Liz Piselli scored five goals against Oregon on Saturday.
The Cardinal’s Maris Pearlman scored first in the battle at the 13:31 mark, but Alison Leiner netted a goal 26 seconds later to even the score. Stanford then turned on a seven-goal scoring tear after Pearlman landed her second goal with seven and a half minutes remaining in the first half, which helped the Cardinal seal the victory.
May, now a three-time All-American selection after Thursday’s announcement, received a yellow card in the first half and was tagged with a second at the 9:15 mark in the second, sidelining her in a battle that Stanford controlled from start to finish.
Sarah MacDonald landed a free-position goal with 1:57 left, her fourth of the year and Oregon’s only other score.
The Ducks’ two goals matched their fewest goals scored ever. Stanford outshot Oregon 27-25 and Poponyak made eight saves. The Ducks converted only one of their seven free position chances, including four missed opportunities by junior Jana Bradley.
In last year’s consolation match, the Ducks defeated the Golden Bears 9-8 and, this year, they won 16-10 in Berkeley, Calif.
On Sunday, Oregon pulled out yet another victory against California, though its significance was overshadowed by the disappointment of Saturday’s loss.
The Golden Bears trailed 5-2 at halftime, but fought back to even the score at 6-6. Sarah MacDonald netted a goal off a Leiner pass to provide the Ducks a 7-6 lead with 4:35 remaining in the game. After May scored Oregon’s final goal to put the Ducks up by two, California’s Danni Zuralow netted a score with 45 seconds to go to make things interesting. May, whose 134 career points ranks first in program history, won the next draw control, which allowed the Ducks to run down the clock and earn the win.
Poponyak had 10 saves for the Ducks. Junior Kate Fleming finished the season with a team-high 33 goals after scoring a hat trick against California. Dieringer landed 32 goals this year, including two against the Golden Bears. Van den Berg, the Ducks’ leading point scorer, added an assist against California to end the season with 47 points. Leiner had three points on the day as she tallied a goal and two assists. Both Leiner and May concluded the year with 22 goals and 17 assists.