#1 Denver women’s lacrosse (14-1, 11-0) faced #4 Villanova (6-11, 4-7) in the BIG EAST Championship Tournament semifinal at Georgetown’s Cooper Field. The teams played a tight first 20 minutes but a 4-0 run gave Denver a 3-goal lead, 7-4. Eliza Radochonski’s three goals helped Denver build a first-half lead. Julia Gilbert bracketed Radochonski’s first-half effort with the first goal of the half to open the scoring and two of Denver’s final three goals. Gilbert’s final goal, two players up, gave Denver an 8-5 lead at the break. Brittany Bruno had three first-half tallies for the Wildcats.
Five minutes into the second half, Radochonski placed an overhead dunk into the cage early to double up the Cats, 10-5. Hanny Liddy buried a diving shot on a beautiful pass from Caroline Wiseman to double up Villanova, yet again, 12-6. BIG EAST attacker of the Year, Bea Behrins, scored on a nifty fast-break goal, assisted by Hannah Liddy, to keep DU’s advantage at six goals, 13-7.
Tic-Tac-Toe in transition to push the lead to 13-7.#PioneerTogether pic.twitter.com/anIlAeMjRV
— Denver Women’s Lacrosse (@DU_WLAX) May 6, 2021
Behrins followed that goal with another tally to extend Denver’s lead to 14-7 with 8:26 left in the game. The teams traded goals the remainder of the half as Denver cruised to the win over Villanova, 16-9.
Villanova won 17-10 draw controls to maintain possession for much of the game but had trouble scoring against Denver’s stingy defense. Denver’s offense was extremely efficient going 16/22 shots-on goal. Radochonski led DU in scoring with six goals and one assist. Next up for DU is the winner of the #2 UConn- #3 Georgetown game in the BIG EAST Championship Tournament game Saturday at 10:00 am MT.
Pios are peaking — they looked good in every area except draw controls today and were quietly confident enough to pull away from Villanova, who had no answer for Rado and Gilbert offensively. Those two Pios imposed their wills on the ‘Cats today in DC…
Now it’s Big East final time for DU. UConn is the toughest league opponent for sure, but G’town would also be a tough out for DU on the Hoyas’ home field. DU has handled both teams this year, so bring on either one.
I would imagine that DU is going to be dancing no matter what happens in Saturday’s title game, but stranger things have happened, so why not go out there and win yourself a title on Saturday, Pios?
I think DU needs to figure out wing play on those draw controls as the best thing to work on to prepare for Saturday. A better, deeper team will punish the Pios if DU gives up possession as easily as they did on many of those draw controls today.
Go Pios!
6’8” Yale female basketball player Sonje Downing should have transferred to DU for draw controls