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Women's Lacrosse

Colorado Crusher

BOULDER, Colo. – No. 18 Stanford made history by playing in the first-ever Pac-12 Conference lacrosse game on Friday. But the Cardinal could not hold a seven-goal lead and fell at No. 19 Colorado, 18-16.

Stanford (3-3, 0-1 Pac-12) led 12-5 in the first half and led by six at intermission, but the host Buffaloes outscored the Cardinal 12-4 after the break. Colorado (4-2, 1-0) shut out the Cardinal over the final 14:15, and scored the game's final six goals.

Senior Maggie Nick poured in six goals -- the second-most in a game in school history and the most since Kelsey Murray had six on April 17 against Cal last season. In addition, junior Genesis Lucero tallied the second-most draw controls in a game in school history -- she is the first to record nine in a game since she did so against UCONN last season. Lucero is the only player in program history with nine or more draw controls in two different games.

Pac-12 lacrosse officially got underway when sophomore Daniella McMahon won the conference's inaugural draw control.

McMahon also scored Stanford's first Pac-12 goal at the 24:21 mark of the first half.  

The lead changed hands three times in the early going. Murray scored back-to-back goals to put Stanford up 3-2, but Colorado got the next two. Taylor Scornavacco and Areta Buness scored to give Stanford a 5-4 advantage at the 17:07 mark. 

Stanford took over for the rest of the half. Nick scored three times in just over five minutes, and Scornavacco added another in that time for a 9-4 lead with 10:20 to go before intermission. The Buffaloes got one back, but the Cardinal scored the next three as Ali Baiocco notched a pair in the span of 44 seconds, and Scornavacco finished off a first-half hat trick.  

Colorado scored the first five goals of the second half to get within 12-11 at the 20:19 mark. However, Stanford responded with four of the next five scores. Nick had three of those, including the last one, which gave the Cardinal a 16-12 lead with 14:15 to go. 

The Buffaloes tied it with 7:54 to play and, less than a minute later, took a lead they would not surrender.

Stanford led in shots (43-38) and draw controls (21-15). Senior Allie DaCar made nine saves, while Murray led the team with three ground balls. Nick and Buness added three draw controls apiece, and Julia Massaro contributed a pair of ground balls and two draw controls. All three of Stanford's losses have come against Top 20 competition. 

Stanford wraps up its four-game road trip that has taken the team from California to North Carolina, Colorado and Oregon. The Cardinal takes on the Ducks at 3 p.m. PT on the Pac-12 Network. 

Stronger together #internationalwomensday #GoStanford

A post shared by Stanford Women's Lax (@stanfordwlax) on Mar 8, 2018 at 2:16pm PST

#GoStanford