Women's Lacrosse

Kelly’s Heroes Secure Top 5 Win Over Maryland 8-7

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Over her 17 years at the helm of #9 Denver women’s lacrosse (6-0), head coach Liza Kelly has been elevating the University of Denver program by winning conference titles, earning NCAA berths and advancing in the NCAA Tournament. However, Sunday morning her team reached another significant milestone with an 8-7 road win against powerhouse #5 Maryland. Maryland was 160-5 at home under head coach Cathy Reese heading into Sunday’s game.  Maryland has garnered 14 women’s lacrosse titles while Denver has done everything but crack the top 4-5 programs in women’s lacrosse. That all changed Sunday morning.

Maryland struck twice in the first period with goals by Kori Edmondson on a free position and man-up. Denver countered in the same period with a pair of goals by Lauren Black and Julia Gilbert to knot the score. Denver took control of the scoring in the second quarter with strikes by Gilbert, Ellie Curry and Mollie Estepp to head into halftime leading, 5-3.

Denver opened the second half on the front foot with consecutive goals by Julia Gilbert and Lauren Black to take a commanding 7-3 lead. However, the momentum swung as the Terrapins reeled off three straight tallies to end the quarter trailing by one goal. Could Denver hold off the charging Terrapins?

Stout fourth-quarter defense kept both teams off the scoreboard until Ellie Curry delivered the critical game-winner with 6:00 minutes remaining. Four minutes later, the Terrapins found paydirt but it was too little, too late. DU held off any final chances Maryland had with the final buzzer sounding and an 8-7 win.

The road win against one of the most storied programs in women’s lacrosse will surely go down as one of Liza Kelly’s greatest wins against one of the sports blueblood programs.

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As a reminder, LetsGoDU has launched a lacrosse line that features women’s clothing. Go HERE to see our ‘Denver Bonnie’ lacrosse cap, hoodie and t-shirt and show your Pioneer pride. All proceeds go to benefit DU lacrosse.

6 thoughts on “Kelly’s Heroes Secure Top 5 Win Over Maryland 8-7”

  2. This is a very big deal. I knew the Pios would be great on defense with Thacker and Bohi returning, but I was not sure about the offense with Bea Behrins now graduated.

    The Pios bent, but did not break as Maryland gave everything in the final minutes.

    Liza Kelly has done nothing but build this program incrementally over a long period to be a top 5 team, and today’s win proved that they are legitimate for that conversation this year.

    Keep winning, Pios!

    Reply

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