Buffs Set To Face UMass In First Round Of NCAA Tournament

BOULDER — Colorado will face Massachusetts on Friday, May 12, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, marking the Buffs first ever appearance in the national championship since starting the program in 2014.

CU and UMass will square off at 5 p.m. MDT/7 p.m. EDT in Philadelphia, Pa. Penn was selected the No. 7 seed and is the host of the first and second rounds. The Quakers will face Navy in the other first round match-up at 2 p.m. MDT/4 p.m. EDT. The winners of the two games will meet in the second round on Sunday, May 14, at 11 a.m. MDT/1 p.m. EDT.

All games will be played at Penn Park on Dunning-Cohen Champions Field, which was the site of the 2012 Ivy League Championships.

HOW TO WATCH THE GAME: Penn will stream all three games live. A link to the stream, as well as live stats, will be available at http://www.pennathletics.com.

ABOUT THE BUFFS: The Buffs, who are ranked ninth in the Nike/U.S. Lacrosse Magazine poll and are 10th in the IWLCA Coaches and Cascade/Inside Lacrosse media poll, finished the regular season with a 16-3 record and were a perfect 8-0 at home. They started the season with a school record 11 straight wins and this season recorded their first four wins over ranked teams.

Darby Kiernan leads CU with 72 points (49 goals and 23 assists). She is ninth nationally in draw controls per game (6.21) and is 15th in the NCAA in free-position goals per game (0.95). Johnna Fusco is second on the team with 60 points (50 goals and 10 assists). She is third in the NCAA in free-position goals per game (1.24) and is fifth nationally with 7.82 shots per game. Defensively, Paige Soenksen is sixth in the NCAA with an 8.18 goals against average and is ninth with a .502 save percentage.

CU has 141 caused turnovers this season. Sarah Brown has tallied 32 to lead the team, while Kelsie Garrison is second with 18. Colorado has won 279 of 465 draw controls this season (.600). Kiernan has accounted for 118 this season, which is also a CU single season record.

As a team, CU is ranked in the top 10 nationally in several areas. The Buffs are third in scoring defense (7.84), fifth in win percentage (.842) and are sixth in scoring margin (7.00) and turnovers per game (14.11). The Buffs are listed in the top 20 in six other areas. They are 11th in saves percentage (.502), 13th scoring offense (14.84), 16th in draw controls per game (14.68), 17th in shot percentage (.459), 19th in shots per game (32.32) and 20th in shots on goal per game (23.89).

ABOUT THE MINUTEWOMEN: UMass won the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament last week to earn an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament, finishing the regular season with a 16-3 record. One of those three losses came against CU (11-7) last February.

Holly Turner leads the team with 80 points (39g, 41a). Her 4.21 points per game ranks 29th in the NCAA and her 2.16 assists per game is 20th. Hannah Burnett is the team leader with 58 goals. Her 3.05 goals per game ranks 31st in the NCAA. She is also second on the team in points with 71. Hannah Murphy is the NCAA lead in draw controls, averaging 10.42 per game. Her .636 free-position percentage is the 10th best in the nation. She is also fourth in the team in points (59) and leads the team in shots (116). Lauren Hiller has recorded a 15-3 record in net. She is allowing 10.88 goals per game and has a .440 save percentage.

As a team, the Minutewomen lead the country with 17.84 draw controls per game. They are second in free-position percentage (.551), assists per game (9.84), and points per game (25.95), are third in shots on goal per game (27.63), fourth in scoring offense (16.11) and are fifth in shots per game (35.79) and win percentage (.842).

THE SERIES: This will be the third meeting between the two teams, the second this season, with the series tied up at 1-1. UMass won the first meeting on March 14, 2014, 17-4. At the time, UMass was ranked ninth. The second meeting went in favor of CU, 11-7, on Feb. 17, 2017. The Buffs were ranked No. 14/11 at the time, while UMass was 16th.

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Buffs Set To Face UMass In First Round Of NCAA Tournament

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Players Mentioned

Sarah Brown

Johnna Fusco

Kelsie Garrison

Darby Kiernan

Paige Soenksen