Among chaos in the press box, inexperienced fans and media and even a home announcer still learning the sport, Oregon’s first ever lacrosse game against Stanford was often exciting — and at times confusing — on and off the field.
The Ducks fell to the Cardinal 19-6 in their inaugural match Saturday at Papé Field. In front of more than 800 fans who braved the rain, Oregon shocked Stanford early by taking a 2-0 lead off goals from freshmen Jen May and Lindsay Killian in the first four minutes of play. The Cardinal answered with two quick scores of its own before Killian and fellow freshman Theresa Waldron found the back of freshman goalie Laura Shane’s net, making the score 4-2 in Oregon’s favor with 17:43 left in the first half.
“They’re tough,” Stanford head coach Michele Uhlfelder said. “I see unbelievable potential for this program … They’re gonna improve at a very quick rate.”
But Stanford’s experienced players soon took over the game. The Cardinal, returning 13 players from last year’s 9-9 squad, went on an 8-0 run before the half, scoring its last goal of the period with 39 seconds left on the clock to make the score 10-4.
Scoring in steady bursts, Stanford went on another eight-goal run in the second period to push the score to
18-4 with 10:51 remaining. Following Stanford’s fourth goal of the half at the 17:29 mark, officials kept the game clock running due to lacrosse’s 10-point “mercy rule.”
The Ducks added two late scores — one by freshman Jana Bradley and another by midfielder May — bringing the final score to 19-6 as Stanford also found the net again in the closing minutes.
Despite the lopsided score, the Ducks saw the contest as a stepping stone to future success.
“It was awesome,” Killian said. “This is just gonna make us better.”
“It’s a growing process, and we’ve got to take some steps,” Oregon head coach Jen Larsen said. “I’m glad we took a step forward today.”
Oregon started 11 freshmen along with senior goalkeeper Louisa Dorsch. No player on the Duck roster had any varsity collegiate experience before Saturday’s battle.
“I wish we would have played a little bit better, but there was some good, positive stuff. We’ll go up from here,” said Dorsch, a former Oregon club player. “We were strong in some areas, and others we need to work on.”
Several Ducks noted the breakdown in the defense’s “second slide,” or second rotation, near the goal as an area that needs improvement.
“They were getting easy dump downs and shots on goal,” May said.
More important than finding out weaknesses and strengths for the Ducks was obtaining actual
game experience.
“We gained confidence, knowing we can play with a team like this.” May said.
May, who scored the first point in Oregon lacrosse history, and Killian led the Ducks with two goals each. Stanford sophomore Elizabeth Piselli led all players with five goals.
Oregon (0-1 overall, 0-1 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) has a two-week break before flying to Denver for a pair of games. The Ducks will face the host Pioneers on Feb. 25,
followed by Northwestern on Feb. 26.

Beau Eastes is a freelance reporter for the Daily Emerald