Oregon Women’s Lacrosse: Ducks Advance To The Semis

The Oregon Ducks exploded in a nine-point second period and held off a late Buffalo rally to emerge victorious in the first round of the Pac-12 tournament, 14-10.

Morgan McCarthy scored Oregon’s first two goals in the first five minutes of the game, and Colorado evened it up at 2-2 to end the first period.

The Ducks broke it open in the second period. Within a minute, Gabby Cleveland scored her only goal of the game off a free-position shot following a Colorado foul.

That goal was followed with Lillian Stump’s first of two goals in the period.

Shonly Wallace notched her 36th goal of the season to give Oregon the 5-2 advantage. Katie Collins followed 34 seconds later and the Ducks had four unanswered goals within the first five minutes of the second period. Lillian Stump scored her second goal of the period after a relatively lengthy Buffalo possession that ended in another CU foul. Haley Cummins got past a double-team to put the Ducks up six, 8-2.

Morgan McCarthy then scored her third goal of the match.

Hanna Hilcoff scored the 99th goal of her career to put Oregon up 10-2. Katie Collins brought the goal count to nine unanswered, and the Ducks were running away with it, 11-2.

With a little over 2 ¹⁄₂ minutes left before halftime, Colorado picked up a couple of goals to go into halftime down 11-4.

In the third period, there was more back-and-forth between the teams, with neither getting the upper hand until Shonly Wallace scored her second goal of the game. A few minutes later, Katie Collins scored her third goal of the game off a pass from Lillian Stump.

Colorado scored their only goal of the period with less than three minutes left, and the Ducks went into the 4th up 13-5.

The Buffaloes rallied in the fourth period, scoring three goals and closing to 13-8. Katie Collins scored her fourth goal of the game to throw some water on Colorado’s hot hand.

Colorado scored two very quick goals with seven minutes left, and that’s all they would get. The Ducks locked down on defense, highlighted by some great saves by Cassidy Eckert.

Seven Ducks contributed to Oregon’s 14 points, lead by Morgan McCarthy with four and Katie Collins with three. Cassidy Eckert’s 13 saves were huge today.

Oregon did well today in completely dominating a very good Colorado team, punching a ticket with #1 Stanford. The Ducks lost both of their matches against Stanford during the regular season, but if they play against the Cardinal like they played today, they can make a game of it.

The Oregon Ducks face off against the Stanford Cardinal in the semifinals on Thursday, 5/5/22, at 4:30 pm PT. The game can be viewed on the Pac-12 Network.