The Colorado Mesa University Women’s lacrosse team took down Colorado State University-Pueblo 15-8 in their season and home opener. Senior midfielder Olivia Hayden led the Mavericks with four goals as the number 22 ranked team in the country was able to fight the cold weather to upend the Thunderwolves.
Nine different Mavericks found the back of the net on Saturday led by Hayden who hit the mark four times 100 percent of the time with four shots on goal.
“We had these two very simple goals [for today], Head Coach Shanta Loecker said. “One was to have a good time, the second was to make sure we were better than we were yesterday, and definitely that happened 100 percent. We improved and had fun.”
Sophomore midfielder Kiley Barber got the Mavericks on the board within the opening 30 seconds of the game and scoring again about a minute and a half later to give CMU the early 2-0 lead.
The Mavericks would continue to pour it on, scoring on their first six possessions and giving them all the momentum. All the goals coming within eight yards of the net coming off beautiful cuts, with pin-point passes leading to easy goals.
CMU would go up on CSU-P 10-0 before Allison Wurscher got the Thunderwolves on the board 9:14 remaining in the first half. Hayden would then score her third goal of the first half followed by Ashton Little getting her sole score. The Thunderwolves would score once more and halftime would have the home team up 12-2.
To open the second half the Thunderwolves came out firing and scored two quick goals to bring the score to 12-4. The Mavericks would then come down and score with senior attacker Mary Koch putting a rocket past Ann Marie Horton. Hayden would add to the Mavericks lead with her fourth goal right afterward.
CSU-P would go on to score three more goals before the final buzzer but the explosive first half by CMU was too much to overcome.
“The plan was definitely to put high pressure on defensively, and so I think for us to do that for the entire game there is going to be some lapses,” Loecker said. “Overall, I think we did it really well for 75 percent of the game and the other 25 percent we just have to work on our composure.”
The difference was effort and coaching. CMU ran a very aggressive ride and defense to force CSU-P to make unforced errors and play in a very high-tempo game. The Mavericks defense fueled the offense, the effort started with the aggressive defense, and CMU worked just as hard on the offensive end.
“Ultimately we were trying to overload some of the areas in the eight-meter area to throw off some of those off-ball defenders,” said coach Loecker.
There were a combined 49 turnovers in this game as a result of the high pace and aggressive defense. The Thunderwolves had 26 turnovers and it led to CMU pushing the ball very effectively in transition, looking for the open scores at all times and it led to multiple goals on fast-breaks.
The rest of the defense performed rather well, allowing only 16 shots and sophomore goalie Lula Mitchell had six saves on the day.
For the rest of the offense, they performed well. Marissa Leonardi had three goals and the attacker tandem of Paige Elliot and Kenzie Blackwood each had four assists with Blackwood adding a goal on the day.
CMU will get the next week off as they prepare for their next game against Westminster College on March 1.
