Now In Just Fourth Year, Buffs Lacrosse Making National Waves

BOULDER — Colorado lacrosse coach Ann Elliott remembers quite well the trials and travails of compiling her first recruiting class in Boulder.

Elliott, a first-time college head coach, was starting a program from scratch at CU. Hired in March 2012, she had less than two years to put together a team that would begin competing in the spring of 2014.

"Obviously recruiting in the beginning was a challenge," Elliott said with a laugh Tuesday morning. "We had to recruit based on my staff at the time and trying to get people to come out to see how great the University of Colorado really was. There was no field, no locker room — I didn't even have an office. Anne Kelley (CU women's golf coach) was nice enough to let me use her office for recruits; otherwise I'm not sure what we would have done."

But somehow, Elliott's sales pitch worked. She convinced quality players from lacrosse hotbeds around the nation that the potential and promise of a program that didn't even have a field yet was worth the gamble. She sold it, they bought it — and today, the result is nothing short of astounding.

Those first CU recruits are now seniors for a program that is 9-0, ranked as high as fourth in the nation in two major polls (sixth in the coaches poll) and owns four wins over top-20 teams thus far this season.

"It's a special group — not just the players, but the parents and families," Elliott said. "From Day One, they believed in the University of Colorado and they believed in me and what we could do together. They continue to be excited about and supportive of us in every way imaginable.

"The neat thing is they're invested for the long term, not just for the time they're here. They understand they have helped build the foundation of this program and it will always carry their mark, everything they've done. It's exciting, watching them grow as a group."

While the Buffs' success this year — a season that has already produced wins over No. 6 Penn State, No. 9 Northwestern, No. 14 Denver and No. 16 UMass — has no doubt opened eyes around the nation, it is by no means an overnight turnaround.

Rather, it is the continued progression of a program that has steadily improved since its inaugural season.

All three of Elliott's first three teams finished with winning overall records, winning records in MPSF conference play and a berth in the MPSF postseason tournament. The Buffs entered this season with a 35-20 overall mark under Elliott, including an 18-9 record in conference play (Colorado will begin play next season in the Pac-12, as the conference will sponsor the sport for the first time).

The leap the Buffs have taken this year is simply the result of a team that has grown up together, learned together and taken to heart the coaching wisdom that Elliott brought with her from Northwestern, where she was part of three national championship teams as a player and three more as an assistant coach.

"I remember our first day of practice — we couldn't even run two sprints in a row," Elliott said. "But then you realize it's one thing at a time. Focus on the little things and get better every day. Our girls really bought into that philosophy and they bought into our vision. When you get a group of players to do that and commit to each other and commit to the program's vision, then anything becomes possible."

Now, that possibility is an MPSF tournament championship — the Buffs have been to the semifinals three years in a row — and the program's first NCAA Tournament berth.

The challenge, of course, is making sure her players keep an eye on the task at hand and not look too far into the future.

"Right now, we believe anything is possible — but we know we still have a lot to prove and a lot still to accomplish," Elliott said. "We're only halfway through the season. Things change in a hurry. You see it with other teams around the nation. Every week there's other great games and other great teams stepping up and winning big games. We just have to focus on ourselves and getting better and trying to control what we can control, and understand that if we do that, anything's possible. But if we lose our focus, it's going to be a long road."

So far, the Buffs have not shown any signs of losing that focus. They opened the season with an 11-10 overtime win against Northwestern and haven't stopped rolling since. Their closest margin of victory since the opener has been four goals.

The Buffs currently boast the No. 1 scoring defense in the nation, allowing just 6.89 goals per game. Senior goalie Paige Soenksen leads the nation in goals against, giving up just 7.2 per contest.

Offensively, the Buffs are just as potent, currently ranked fourth in the nation in scoring, averaging 16.22 goals per game, and they're doing it with a balanced attack. While junior Darby Kiernan leads CU with a 2.89 goals-per-game average (26 on the season), she is just 46th in the nation. She is followed by seniors Johnna Fusco (2.86 gpg) and Katie Macleay (2.33), and three other Buffs — Carly Cox, Miranda Stinson and Cali Castagnola — each have at least 15 goals apiece.

While the Buffs are roughly halfway through their regular season schedule, they have just two home games remaining: Saturday's noon tilt with Fresno State at Kittredge Fields and the April 7 home finale with perennial MPSF power Stanford (3 p.m.).

Meanwhile, they still have a March 31 non-conference game at No. 7 Stony Brook, as well as four straight conference road games to finish the regular season: USC, San Diego State, St. Mary's and Cal. Put those two weekends together with the ensuing MPSF tournament, hosted by USC, and it will mean three consecutive weekends on the road.

"Our focus is always on getting better and what that next game is," Elliott said. "We don't live in the past and we don't live in the future. But at the same time we have an understanding of the overall picture. They understand how everything works and where they're at — but we haven't won a conference tournament and we haven't ever made the NCAA Tournament. They know that none of that is a given. There's still a lot we have not done and a lot we need to do. The more they understand the bigger picture but focus on the small things, we have the chance to accomplish what we want."

The Buffs have already beaten two of the last four MPSF champs, Denver and Oregon. But still ahead are Stanford (18th in the national coaches poll) and USC (ninth).

"While we're excited, we know there's a lot more to be done," Elliott said. "They hear me say the same thing day after day, game after game: 'We're not there yet. We're not good enough.'

"Their response is, 'OK, we'll be better.' They buy into that and they understand and they work harder. Hopefully if we can keep that for the next month and a half as we start going on the road a lot more, and if we can stay focused, we'll be where we want to be at the end of the year."

Note: Colorado plays its home games at Kittredge Field on the University of Colorado campus. Admission and parking are free at all home CU games.

Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu