Road Swing Continues Against Vermont and Colorado

EUGENE, Ore. – The Oregon women's lacrosse team will continue its eight-game road swing this weekend as it travels to Colorado for a pair of games. The Ducks (5-2, 3-0 MPSF) will open the weekend on Friday in Denver with a neutral site game against Vermont (0-8) at 6 p.m. PT. Oregon will then take its 3-0 MPSF record to Boulder to take on conference rival Colorado (8-0, 1-0 MPSF), ranked fourth and seventh by Inside Lacrosse and the IWLCA Coaches poll, respectively, at 11 a.m. PT on Sunday. The Ducks currently sit at the top of the MPSF standings and will get their first crack at a ranked opponent this season against the undefeated Buffaloes.

HOW TO FOLLOW
The Ducks' game against Vermont in Denver will not be live streamed, but live stats will be available on the lacrosse schedule on goducks.com. Oregon's game at Colorado on Sunday will be broadcast live on Pac-12 Networks, with Jason Knapp (pxp) and Kara Lentz (analyst) on the call. There will also be live stats available on the lacrosse schedule on goducks.com, and updates for both games will be provided via Twitter on @OregonWLAX.

TRIO OF GOAL-SCORERS LEADING DUCKS THROUGH SEVEN GAMES
The Ducks have enjoyed a balanced effort on the offensive end through seven games this season, averaging 13.43 goals per game to slot in at 24th in the country and fourth in the MPSF. Ten different players have accounted for goals so far for Oregon, led by the trio of Shannon Williams, Mariah Gatti and Bella Pyne. Williams and Gatti are each tied for the team lead and are tied for fourth in the MPSF with 20 goals apiece, while Pyne is right behind with 18 after exploding for a career-high six against Winthrop on March 3. Williams also leads the Ducks with 30 total points, and is second in the conference with 4.29 points per game. Cambi Cukar has been tremendous once again this season at setting up her teammates, as she leads the MPSF and is tied for 14th in the nation with 17 assists (2.43 per game). JoJo Hesketh is fourth on the team in goals with 12, and Julia Taylor has also broken into double-digits with 10.

DUCKS ACTIVE ON DEFENSE
Oregon has been very active on the defensive end thus far this season in terms of attacking the ball-carrier, as the Ducks are tied for eighth in the nation and second in the conference with 11.86 caused turnovers per game and 83 total. The Ducks have forced double-digit turnovers in all but one game this season, including a season-high 17 in a win over San Diego State (Feb. 11). Senior Bella Pyne and junior Jill Zubillaga lead the Ducks with 13 caused turnovers apiece, and sophomore Mandi Trostle is right behind with 11 forced turnovers. Oregon is 37th in the country in scoring defense so far this year, allowing 10.29 goals per game.

WATCHING THE RECORD BOOK
With only two full seasons under her belt, junior Cambi Cukar has already moved into second all-time at UO in career assists. With a program-record 46 assists in 2016, Cukar ran her career-total to 82 to pass Kristina Barrett (2009-12) for third. Cukar has passed Carly O'Connell for second with 17 assists so far this season, putting her only 15 dimes short of Shannon Propst's program record of 114 and only one shy of the 100 mark for her career with 99. Cukar has broken into the top-two at an astounding rate, as she is one of only two Ducks in the top-10 assist list to play in fewer than 70 games (42).

SCOUTING VERMONT AND NO. 4/7 COLORADO
The Ducks will look to build on a 5-1 advantage in the all-time series against Vermont when they face off against the 0-8 Catamounts in Denver on Friday. Oregon last faced Vermont in 2013 in Eugene, with the Ducks coming away with a thrilling 14-13 win in a three-overtime contest. This season, the Catamounts have yet to get in the win column and are coming off a 14-4 loss to No. 16/19 Denver. Vermont is led this season by Brynne Yarranton (13 goals), Alison Bolt (10 goals, 11 assists) and Meredith Moore (10 goals, 9 assists).

Against the ranked Buffaloes on Sunday, Oregon will try to hand Colorado its first loss of the season as well as its first loss in the all-time series with Oregon, which Colorado leads, 4-0. The Buffs are fresh off an 18-6 win over Winthrop on Wednesday, and have already beaten four ranked teams, including two in the top 10. Colorado is led by Darby Kiernan, who has 23 goals and 11 assists this season. Johnna Fusco has added 20 goals, and four other Buffs are in double-digits. Miranda Stinson (12 goals, 9 assists) is the reigning conference and national player of the week. Goalie Paige Soenksen has been stellar in net, as she leads the nation with a 6.61 goals against average and boasts a .602 save percentage.

DUCKS SPLIT ON THE ROAD AT WINTHROP AND HIGH POINT
March 3 - Oregon 18, Winthrop 5
The Ducks jumped all over Winthrop from the start of the game to win their third straight, opening up leads of 2-0 and 4-1 to take control early. Oregon would use huge offensive days from Bella Pyne and Shannon Williams to pull away for the 18-5 blowout win. Leading 10-5 with 25 minutes left, the Ducks ripped off eight unanswered goals to finish off the commanding win.

Pyne set a career-high with six goals and added an assist to give her a career-high seven points, and Williams also set career-highs in both categories with five goals and seven points (2 assists). Cambi Cukar was tremendous once again at setting up her teammates, racking up five assists. Julia Bolte continued to make her presence known on the offensive end with a pair of goals, and Rachel Steinberg added two late. Mandi Trostle finished with a career-high four caused turnovers, and Jill Zubillaga hauled in a career-best eight draw controls to go with her first-career assist.

March 5 - High Point 17, Oregon 13
After falling into early deficits of 6-0 and 10-2, the Ducks began to find some momentum late in the first half with three consecutive goals by Mariah Gatti, JoJo Hesketh and Julia Taylor to go into halftime down five, 10-5. High Point started fast again in the second half, ripping off four goals in a row to extend its lead to nine, 14-5. Hesketh scored her second goal of the game with 24:13 remaining before the Panthers pushed their lead to 10, 16-6.

The Ducks began to climb their way back into it from that point, scoring four unanswered goals to cut the deficit to six goals, 16-10. Taylor recorded her second-career hat trick with a pair of goals sandwiched around Gatti's second score, and Bella Pyne got her first of the game on a dish from freshman Julia Bolte with 10:20 remaining. High point pushed its lead back to seven at the 8:04 mark, and the Ducks were held scoreless over the next six minutes. Hesketh added her career-best fourth goal of the game with 2:04 left, and Gatti added two more to cap a great offensive day in the final minutes, but the Panthers' lead was too much to overcome for the visiting Ducks.

Gatti tied her career-high with five goals, while Hesketh scored four times to go with four draw controls. Taylor added three goals, an assist and three draw controls in a complete performance, and the freshman Bolte did a nice job of setting up her teammates with a season-high four assists. Leading goal-scorers Shannon Williams and Pyne were held to one goal between the two of them, but they did tally four total assists.

KATZEN NAMED MPSF DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK (FEB. 6)
Senior goalie Becca Katzen was rewarded for her strong performance in goal in the Ducks' season-opening 11-8 win over Michigan, earning MPSF Defensive Player of the Week honors for the first time in her career. Katzen was stellar at the start of the game against the Wolverines, making five saves in the first 10 minutes including a pair of free-position saves. Katzen finished with a career-high nine saves on 17 shots on goal(.529), and was solid against nine total free-position shots. The native of Cockeysville, Md., earned her first-career win while helping the Ducks to victory.

KATRINA DOWD TAKES OVER OREGON LACROSSE, BRINGS ON BLOCK AND TUMOLO AS ASSISTANTS
Katrina Dowd was introduced as the Ducks' second head coach in program history on June 15, 2016, coming to Eugene as one of the most established players and coaches in all of women's lacrosse. A prolific goal-scorer during her playing days at Northwestern and with the USA National Team, Dowd is expected to bring a fast and exciting new brand of lacrosse to Oregon. Dowd took over at the helm of the Ducks after spending four seasons as the offensive coordinator and draw specialist coach at North Carolina, helping the Tar Heels to national championships titles in both 2013 and 2016.

"My philosophy is to teach the game with passion and belief," Dowd said at her introductory press conference. "At the core that's about player development and team chemistry. We're going to attract the best student-athletes, provide them a one-of-a-kind student-athlete experience and compete at the highest level, with the ultimate goal of winning national championships."

Dowd filled her coaching staff with familiar faces and impressive resumes, bringing on Becca Block and Michelle Tumolo as assistant coaches. Dowd has played with both Block and Tumolo on the USA National Team, and coached them both as an assistant at Syracuse in 2013 when the two were seniors. Block will coordinate the Ducks' defense, while Tumolo will focus on the offensive side.

LACROSSE TO BECOME PAC-12 SPORT IN 2018
The Pac-12 Conference will add women's lacrosse for the 2018 season as the conference's 12th sponsored women's sport and 23rd overall. Arizona State announced it would add women's lacrosse in 2018, giving the Pac-12 the minimum number to qualify (6) for a conference championship and NCAA tournament automatic-qualifying bid.