Oregon’s bid for its first-ever Mountain Pacific Sports Federation title took a slight detour this weekend during the women’s lacrosse team’s season-opening series in the Bay Area.
Coach Jen Larsen’s team, which opened last year’s schedule by beating Stanford at Papé Field, lost to the Cardinal 8-7 on its home field Friday night, a place Oregon still has never won in its two chances. Overall, the Cardinal holds a 4-1 series lead over Oregon. The Ducks (1-1 overall, 1-1 MPSF) rebounded on Sunday against UC-Davis, breaking away from the Aggies for a 15-5 win.
“We certainly didn’t want to lose to Stanford … but what we ended up with was a great performance today,” said Larsen.
For the Ducks, it was a tale of two halves against the Cardinal.
After Oregon ended the first half holding a 6-4 lead on 18 shots – five more than the Cardinal – the upset bid appeared to be in full swing.
For almost the first 20 minutes of the contest, the two teams alternated their goal scoring for a 3-3 tie, with Oregon’s All-MPSF attacker Ilsa van den Berg accounting for two goals. Thirty seconds after Stanford’s Daphne Patterson briefly put the Cardinal ahead, Oregon’s Alex Breiner scored the first of a three-goal run by the Ducks to close the first half up two, with Erin Chisnell and Jana Bradley adding the two other scores.
Whatever momentum was gained by the Ducks in the first half was reclaimed by Stanford in the second.
Stanford’s four second-half goals clinched the win, with the Cardinal’s Amanda Schwab scoring the winner with 10 minutes remaining. Oregon’s Casey Rector scored the Ducks’ lone goal of the half.
The women made sure to take care of business early on Sunday.
Goals by senior Jen May in the first minute and Lindsay Killian in the fourth set the pace for the game, and Oregon went on to hold a 6-3 halftime lead. The Ducks extended their success in the second half, scoring nine goals to Davis’ two.
“We were really able to take care of the momentum,” said Larsen. “It wasn’t so much the opponent, but we just decided we were going to get ourselves in the groove sooner.”
Six different Ducks – Killian, Jana Bradley, Anna Swicklik, Theresa Waldron, Cara Mead and Casey Rector – scored two goals on the afternoon. Killian, Bradley and Swicklik all added an assist to lead Oregon with three points apiece. Goalie Anna Poponyak had 11 saves on the day.
Oregon will next face Virginia Tech on Feb. 22 and Richmond on Feb. 24.
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