It was a blustery afternoon Thursday when University of Denver women’s lacrosse (13-3, 6-0), took on Marquette (9-6, 3-3) at Peter Barton Stadium. The Big EAST semifinal game pitted #1 seed, DU, against #4 Marquette. Denver defeated the Golden Eagles 15-9 a month earlier in Denver and the Pioneers were even more dominant today, thrashing the Golden Eagles 17-6.

At 12:56 of the first quarter, Marquette got on the board, 1-0. That would be the only Golden Eagles lead of the day. Less than a minute later, on the man-up, DU’s Karleigh Mutch cut across the goal face and scored for the Pioneers. Denver took the lead at 10:27 on a dunk by Olivia Ripple. Less than a minute later, Denver worked inside and Caroline Bowers put Denver up 3-1 at 9:43. The teams traded goals with Mutch finding twine again. Bowers struck again with the man advantage in the quarter with a minute to go and Marquette scored with the clock winding down, 5-3.

Denver outscored Marquette 5-1 in a dominant second quarter. Ripple buried two goals and Eva Thomson-Marr scored another marker before MU scored. In the final two minutes, Bowers lit the lamp again with the man-up tally and Ripple solved goalie Jillian Howell, 10-4.

Denver got first blood in the second half with a target by Ripple at 11:53. Mutch scored several minutes later for DU, 12-4, as the Pioneers took full control. With four minutes remaining, Denver began weaving and passing in front of the MU cage. Kendra Harris took the final pass and cut inside for a short-range goal, 13-4. That ended the scoring for the third quarter.

Marquette opened up the scoring in the first minute of the final quarter, 13-5. Less than a minute later, an underhanded swipe from the top of the key from Mutch found its way into the cage, 14-5, at 13:40. On a free position take, Caroline Keil took one step and sailed the ball past goalie Howell, 15-5. Three minutes later, Ripple fired low on a free-position goal and DU’s lead climbed to 16-5. Keil scored again with a beautiful feed from Harris with the man-up, 17-5. Marquette added a goal in the last second, final score 17-6.

The Pioneers are playing some of their best lacrosse of the season. Olivia Ripple tallied 6 goals and Karleigh Mutch chipped in with 4 goals and one assist. DU only had 8 turnovers on the day and won 13 of 24 draw controls. Denver advances to the BIG EAST finals at 1:00 pm MT on Saturday against the winner of Georgetown – UConn game later today.