The historic run has come to an end.
The Colorado Mesa University women’s lacrosse team lost in the NCAA Regional Final 14-16 against Regis University who is now 20-0 on the season. The Rangers were led by Sarah Myres who had two goals and four assists and stellar goaltending by Elle Crawford. CMU and RU drew about the same numbers in groundballs, saves, shots on goal and assists.
The loss ends the Mavericks’ first run in the NCAA Tournament. CMU faced two RMAC rivals, including Regis, in the tournament as they were able to outlast Lindenwood in the first round for their first NCAA Tournament victory.
“It was an awesome team game, they worked really hard and I think they executed well. If you look at the box score and we basically did everything we planned to do,” Head Coach Shanta Loecker said.”We hit a couple pipes and that’s the difference. I couldn’t be prouder of them, I think they played a great game.”
The Rangers scored first, but sophomore attacker Kenzie Blackwell answered twenty seconds later. Both teams played good defense in the half with multiple long stretches of neither team scoring. With about five minutes left in the half, RU went on a two-goal run and a three-goal run to put them up 9-5 at half. The Mavericks picked up 16 groundballs in the half but only controlled five draws at the break.
“We were seeing a couple different face guards on some of our offensive players, Marissa had one, and Olivia was dealing with that, so just talking through that mentality, making sure they are creating lanes for different teammates,” Loecker said. “But also not just giving up on that face guard… so we just wanted to make sure we were on the same page and just staying consistent with our defensive pressure.”
RU scored first again this half, but again CMU answered but this time with a three-goal run to bring the game within two. The Mavericks refused to be put away in this half no matter how many goals the Rangers tried to score. With 7:47 RU scored their last goal of the game, but CMU’s run started too late and they hit a couple pipes and couldn’t get back into the game.
“I feel like my expectations were high coming in and they never had to go anywhere, because the team just continued to push and wasn’t satisfied, every single weekend we have been improving in some way shape or form.” Coach Loecker said “Losing is never fun but if you’re going to lose then you might as well go out swinging with the second-best team in the country, and really give them a game.”
CMU was led in scoring by sophomore midfielder Kiley Barber who had three goals and three assists, followed by senior midfielder Olivia Hayden with four goals and one assist. Five Mavericks had three or more points in the game.
CMU goaltender Lula Mitchell had 12 saves with a .429 save percentage.
