April 10, 2009
STANFORD, Calif. - Dana Lindsay scored four goals Friday to help Stanford beat Denver, 17-10, and close within one victory of wrapping up the top seed in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation women's lacrosse tournament.
The MPSF title is decided solely on the conference tournament, which will be held at Stanford April 23-26, and Stanford (8-3 overall) heads into Sunday's MPSF regular-season finale against visiting California with a 5-0 record. The Cardinal would wrap up the No. 1 seed and a first-round bye with a victory.
Stanford, ranked No. 14 in the nation, fell behind 5-2 after the first eight minutes. But Lauren Schmidt scored the first of her three goals on a free-position shot and Stanford began an 8-1 run that lasted until early in the second half. One reason was that Stanford finally began winning possession and controlling the pace.
"The draw controls were huge," Stanford coach Amy Bokker said. "Denver is an athletic team and this is a huge rivalry. We knew they would come out strong."
The teams have met in the past three MPSF championship games, each a Stanford victory, though the Pioneers had beaten Stanford the past two years in the regular season.
"We've been building to this week and the players worked hard to prepare," Bokker said. "They came out really tough and got a big win."
Denver (8-6, 2-2), the coaches' preseason choice to win the MPSF, got three goals from Karen Morton but was without leading scorer Ali Flury.
Stanford 17, Denver 10
Denver 6 4 - 10
Stanford 9 8 - 17
D - Karen Morton (3 goals, 0 assists), Megan Carver (2-0), Kaiti Delaney (2-0), Lexi Sanders (2-0), Steph Coyne (1-4).
S - Dana Lindsay (4-0), Lauren Schmidt (3-1), Sarah Flynn (3-1), Claire Hubbard (2-1), Karen Nesbitt (2-0), Julie Christy (2-0), Amanda Schwab (1-0), Emilie Boeri (0-1), Bess Siegfried (0-1).
Records - Stanford 8-3, 5-0; Denver 8-6, 2-2.