#17 Denver women’s lacrosse (3-0) opened its home campaign Thursday against the Towson Tigers, following a successful West Coast road swing over the weekend. It was a blustery 35-degree day with numerous fouls (12) and turnovers (37) resulting in uneven, choppy play. Still, Denver built and maintained a commanding lead throughout the 15-11 home opening victory.
Denver had a strong opening 15 minutes. DU’s Caroline Keil opened up the scoring for the Pioneers, 1-0. Three minutes later, Towson knotted the score. Ryan Dineen responded a minute later, 2-1, DU. Keil scored again on a free-position goal at 9:20 of the first quarter. Following a Towson goal, Dineen fed Karleigh Mutch, 4-1, as Denver looked to be running away in the early going. Following another Tiger score, Dineen cut through the middle of the Towson defense and buried a low, bouncing shot past goalie Jena Cardenas, 5-2.
Two minutes into the second period, Caroline Keil struck again for DU, 6-2. Five minutes later, Eva Thomsen-Marr added a goal to extend the Denver lead over the Tigers, 7-2. Following a Pioneer foul, Towson scored a free-position goal by Hannah Lewis to halt the Denver run. A yellow card on Towson led to a lightning strike goal from Olivia Ripple, 8-3. DU started to dominate Townson, as Ryan Dineen scored her third tally of the game to lead 9-3 with 4:41 remaining until the half. DU got the man-up advantage again and scored a free position goal from freshman Chelsea Cho, her first collegiate goal, with two minutes remaining. The Tigers countered less than a minute later, 10-4, but the Pioneers held the score line level until halftime.
In the first half, Denver led in draw controls 8-5, forced turnovers 4-2 and shots-on-goal 10-4. Despite numberous stoppages, Denver had full control of the first 30 minutes.
Eva Thomsen-Marr got the first score two minutes into the third period, 11-4. Towson’s Valerie Thompson offset the Denver goal with a drive through traffic and score, 11-5. With two minutes left in the quarter, Olivia Ripple took the free-position and charged into the crease, beating Cardino on a point-blank shot, 12-5, with 7:35 left in the period. The Tiger’s halved the margin on a following man-up when Katie Roszko found twine, 12-6. In the stop and go, foul-filled quarter, Caroline Keil took a free-position shot from distance, 13-6 to end the third quarter scoring.
The final period was academic. In the first minute, Olivia Ripple rifled a free position opportunity into the goal and, three minutes later, Caroline Bowers beat Cardino as Denver built a commanding 15-6 lead. With four minutes left to play, Towson’s Katie Roszko scored from the left side with a bullet, 15-7. Roszko scored again, her third of the game, cutting between two Pioneer defenders and sending a bouncing shot past Lexi Gwaku. Towson scored three more goals, yet another from Gwaku, and the final score settled at 15-11.
The final four-goal margin was deceiving. The Tigers collected 5 of their 11 goals in the final five minutes. Still, Denver maintained a solid grip on the lead throughout the game. DU doubled up Towson on draw controls, 18-9. However, Denver had an uncharacteristic 22 turnovers in the game. Caroline Keil paced DU with 4 goals and 2 assists. Ripple and Dineen finished with 3 goals and 1 assist each. Gwaku had 7 saves and allowed 11 goals-against (.389%).
Next up is a road trip to Nashville on Sunday to face Vanderbilt at 11:00 am MT.