Ranked Denver team’s second-half outburst bests Owls in Big East opener

The University of Denver, ranked No. 14 in the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association Poll, beat Temple 14-6 to end the Owls’ five-game winning streak.

The University of Denver held Temple scoreless for 23 minutes, 35 seconds in the second half to beat the Owls 14-6 on Sunday in Colorado. The Owls’ winning streak ended at five, and they lost their Big East Conference opener.

After nearly six minutes of scoreless play, senior attacker Anna Frederick scored first to give Temple (7-2, 0-1 Big East) an early 1-0 lead with 24:37 left in the first half. Temple never led during the rest of its game against the Pioneers, who are ranked 14th in the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Association Coaches Poll.

Denver tied the score 10 seconds later when senior defender Layne Voorhees scored her first goal of the season. Denver scored four more goals in the next six minutes to take a 5-1 lead with 18:30 left in the half. Owls’ coach Bonnie Rosen called timeout after her team fell behind by four goals.

Senior midfielder Casey White scored her second goal to make it 6-1 with 16:25 left in the first half. A goal by graduate attacker Brenda McDermott ended Denver’s run with 14:54 left. Her goal started a 3-0 Temple run in a span of 11:48. Junior attacker Kira Gensler and junior attacker Nicole Barretta scored to make it a two-goal game with 3:06 left in the half. Barretta led Temple with three points on two goals and one assist. She scored one of Temple’s two second-half goals.

Denver ended Temple’s run with seven seconds left in the half when sophomore attacker Julia Feiss scored to make it a 7-4 game. Denver got control of the draw and got two shots off before the half, but both of the shots were off the mark.

Feiss led both teams with four goals. She also had two assists on the day. Feiss gave Denver an 8-4 lead when she scored the first goal of the second half with 21:28 left to play. Sophomore attacker Kendra Lanuza then scored back-to-back goals 7:18 apart to give the Pioneers a 10-4 lead with 11:57 left to play.

In addition to her two goals, Lanuza led all players with seven points and five assists. White, redshirt-senior midfielder Emily Conway and sophomore midfielder and attacker Elizabeth Behrins each scored twice.

After a Temple timeout, Denver wasted no time in continuing their run. The Pioneers scored their fourth goal of the half and took an 11-4 lead with 11:09 left. Redshirt-freshman goalkeeper Kelsea Hershey replaced freshman Maryn Lowell after the goal. She gave up three goals in her first game back after injuring in her ankle against St. Joseph’s on Feb. 22.

Lowell played 48:51 and made a career-high nine saves. Denver’s goalkeeper, senior Maddy Stevenson, had seven saves on 20 shots.

Barretta scored her second goal of the game to stop the run with 6:25 left. A minute later, Denver junior midfielder Riley Eggeman scored on an assist by Lanuza to make the score 12-5.

Temple got back within six goals when senior midfielder Carly Demato scored on an assist from freshman midfielder and attacker Olivia Thompson with 4:04 left to play, but didn’t score for the rest of the contest.

Temple continues conference play against Marquette University on Saturday at Howarth Field.

Tessa Sayers can be reached at teresa.sayers@temple.edu or on Twitter @SayersTessa. Follow The Temple News @TheTempleNews and @TTN_Sports.

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