CARY, N.C. — The No. 5 University of Denver women's lacrosse team dropped its only game of the season by a count of 15-7 to No. 1 Northwestern in the national semifinal on Friday afternoon at WakeMed Soccer Park.
Kayla DeRose netted her second hat trick of the season and the fourth of her career as Denver's only multi-goal scorer on Friday. Bryn McCaughey and Gracie DeRose had two caused turnovers apiece. Abby Jenkins led the Pioneers in the draw circle with five controls. Sam Thacker had a team-high three ground balls and three draws.
Denver got on the board first off the stick of Sloane Kipp, her 30th goal of the season. After a stop from both defenses, the nation's top offense got on the board with Izzy Scane's 90th of the campaign. Northwestern took a 2-1 lead on the next possession before the Pioneers rattled off three-straight to end the first-quarter scoring. Denver got two goals off of offensive rebounds in-tight to flip the margin to a 3-2 Denver lead with 6:55 to play in the opening quarter. Ellie Curry dodged around a couple of defenders and switched hands to bury her 32nd of the season and give the Pioneers the 4-2 lead through 15 minutes of play in Cary.
Scane opened the second-quarter scoring for the Wildcats with 8:16 to go in the frame, breaking a stretch of Denver -- the top defense in the country -- holding the top offense in the country without a goal in a 16:42 span. Northwestern would go on to score four times in the final 8:16 while shutting out the Denver offense on the other end to take a two-goal advantage into the locker room.
Denver broke its own scoring drought to open up the third-quarter scoring. Denver's human clear in Trinity McPherson took the ball from three yards off Denver's defensive endline into the offense critical scoring area before feeding Kayla DeRose for her 18th goal of the season. Northwestern got five straight in response to stretch its lead to 11-5 at the end of the third quarter.
The Wildcats made it a 13-1 run dating back to the end of the first quarter with four goals in the first 10 minutes of the final frame. Julia Gilbert ran her goal-scoring streak to 23 games with her 59th tally of the season to stop the Northwestern run.
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