Ducks Host No. 15 Colorado In Pac-12 Clash Friday Night

EUGENE, Ore. - The Oregon women's lacrosse team takes on its second rank team in as many games when it hosts No. 15 Colorado this Friday at 5 p.m. on the Pac-12 Network. The Ducks have never beaten the Buffaloes in the previous five meetings.

GAME 8: OREGON (4-3, 2-2) vs. No. 15 COLORADO (6-3, 3-1)
Friday, March 23 | 5 p.m.
Eugene, Ore. | Pape' Field
Live Stats: GoDucks.com
Live Video: Pac-12 Networks (Oregon & Mountain)

DUCKS SPLIT WILD WEEKEND ROAD TRIP
In their first two true road games of the season, the Ducks put together some of their best all-around performances of the season so far, dominating Arizona State and nearly upsetting league-leading USC. UO's opening game of the weekend was also its first-ever meeting against Arizona State. The tone was set immediately as Jill Zubillaga scored the first goal of the game just 32 seconds in. UO went on to score the next six goals to take a commanding 7-0 lead. ASU finally got on the board with a little under four minutes left in the first half. The Ducks rode their lead all the way to a 14-6 victory, outscoring a much more aggressive Sun Devil team 7-5 in the second half.

In Oregon's second game of the weekend, No. 12 USC were the ones to set the tone by jumping out to a 3-0 lead. The Ducks fought back towards the end of the first half, scoring four of the final five goals to make it 7-6 at halftime. After the explosive first half, both teams clamped down for a much more defensive second half. Shannon Williams netted the first goal of the second half at the 13:09 mark to tie the game 7-7. USC's Hope Anhut managed to pull the Trojans back in front 8-7 with the Ducks scrambling to find the back of the net in the final seven minutes. Jill Zubillaga proved to be UO's hero, charging the net off a pass from freshman Lillian Stump to tie the game with eight seconds left and send it into overtime. After an empty possession from UO, USC managed to earn a free position attempt in the golden goal period. Kerrigan Miller, the Trojan's leading scorer, buried the free position attempt to dash the Ducks upset hopes.

THE THREE AMIGOS
So far this season, the Ducks' attacking trio of Shannon Williams, Mariah Gatti and Jill Zubillaga have been a plague on opposing goalkeepers. The trio have combined to score 76 percent of UO's goals so far this season with Williams and Zubillaga netting 21 each while Gatti is just behind with 19 goals. A defender turned attacker, Zubillaga has scored at least two goals in every game so far this season, leading the team and ranking second in the Pac-12 in shots per game (7.5). Williams has had three four-goal performances so far this season, opening the year with 14 goals over the first four games. After being held scoreless in UO's season opener, Gatti came alive over the following three games scoring 13 goals in that span including tying her career-high with five goals against Canisius.

DROPPING DIMES
To few people's surprise, senior Cambi Cukar is once again the Ducks leading distributor with 16 assists so far this season. Her 2.3 assists per game average currently leads the Pac-12 and ranks 14th in the NCAA. The Pleasanton, Calif., native, has dished out a season-high four assists twice this year, first against California and most recently in UO's win at Arizona State. Cukar's total assists ranks second in the Pac-12 with at least one game in hand on the majority of the remaining field. She is already Oregon's all-time career assists leader with 140 so far in her career, good for 26 more than Shannon Propst who is second. If she can continue her current pace, she will be the only Duck to appear on the UO single-season record list four years running.

WILLIAMS CRACKS CAREER GOALS SCORED LIST AT UO
After netting her fourth goal against California, junior Shannon Williams passed Jess Drummond for ninth all-time on the UO career goals scored list. Williams has been UO's leading goal scorer the past two seasons, scoring 51 goals in 2017 to become Oregon's new single-season scoring leader. So far, she has accounted for 102 goals in her career and needs just three more to tie Shannon Propst for eighth all-time with 105 career goals. Williams also passed Jana Bradley for 10th on the Oregon career points list, with 145 points so far in her career. She needs just three more points to tie Theresa Waldron for ninth.

SHE'S A BRICK WALL
In her first season as a Duck, transfer Brittany Read has already put up big numbers in the net for UO. This past weekend she had arguably two of her best performances for the Ducks. The Gibbsboro, N.J., native, was a major key in nearly shutting out ASU in the first half of last Friday's game. She finished the game with 11 saves in 54 minutes of action for a .733 save percentage, while allowing only four goals by the Sun Devils.

In the Ducks second game of the weekend at No. 12 USC, after a high-scoring first half, Read clamped down allowing only one goal from the top-ranked Trojans in the second half. Read recorded 10 saves in the second half, stopping all four of USC's free position shots in the period. She finished the game with a season-high 15 saves, three shy of the UO single-game record of 18.

So far this season, she has recorded 69 saves placing her ninth on the UO career saves list. Her 9.9 saves per game average ranks second in the Pac-12. If she keeps that average throughout the rest of the season she will break into the top five all-time at UO.

BILLER HAS GOT IT UNDER CONTROL
Sophomore transfer Lexy Biller continues to be a huge impact for the Ducks in the starting circle. Despite totaling only seven draw controls over the last two games, the former Louisville player far and away leads the Ducks with 48 draw controls so far this year, averaging 6.9 per game. The Ashburn, Va., native, currently ranks second in the Pac-12 and 10th in the nation in draw controls per game. Biller tied the UO single-game record with 10 draw controls against No. 7 Syracuse. Midway through the season, she is currently on pace to record 110 draw controls this year, which would shatter the UO single-season record of 77 set by Carly O'Connell in 2014. It would also rank eighth on the UO career draw controls list.

SCOUTING THE DUCKS' OPPONENTS
The No. 15 Buffaloes are the second of three straight ranked opponents for Oregon. CU is 6-3 overall and 3-1 in the Pac-12 with their only loss coming in overtime to No. 12 USC, 8-7. Colorado is the only Pac-12 team to rank in the top 20 in the country in both scoring offense and scoring defense while ranked ninth with a .519 save percentage.
The Buffs are led by senior attacker Darby Kiernan who leads the Pac-12 with 31 goals so far this season. Kiernan also ranks third in the Pac-12 averaging 1.44 assists per game. The battle between Kiernan and Lexy Biller in the circle will be one to watch as Kiernan leads the conference and ranks fourth in the NCAA averaging eight draw controls per game.

The Colorado defense is led by sophomore goalkeeper Julia Lisella who leads the conference with a 10.86 saves per game average. Her .589 save percentage ranks second in the country.

SEASON SCHEDULE
The current 2018 season is filled with unique challenges for the Ducks. Apart from playing every Pac-12 team twice, Oregon will take on five teams who made it to the NCAA Tournament last season, Syracuse, Canisius, Towson, USC and Colorado. Four of those teams are currently ranked in the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association's top 25 with Syracuse and Towson in the top 10. This year's schedule also offered two unique venues for the Ducks. The Ducks and the Orange squared off in West Linn, Ore., in a special game played at West Linn High School. Following that game, Oregon returned to Eugene to face Canisius on the campus rec fields.

READ NAMED INSIDE LACROSSE PRESEASON ALL-AMERICAN
Oregon transfer Brittany Read was named an Inside Lacrosse 2018 preseason second team all-America selection. The all-America nod is only the second such honor in program history for Oregon, and the highest any Duck has been selected by Inside Lacrosse. Jen May is the only other Duck to receive Inside Lacrosse all-America honors after being selected to the all-America third team in 2008. The preseason award is based off Read's 2017 accomplishments which includes 194 total saves and a .512 save percentage ranking her fifth and sixth in the NCAA, respectively.

WORLD CUP PEDIGREE
Head coach Katrina Dowd won't be the only Lacrosse World Cup champion on the sidelines for the Ducks this year. Assistant coaches Michelle Tumolo and Becca Block both earned world cup gold this past summer, the first of their careers. The duo helped team USA go undefeated in tournament play, defeating Canada in the championship match.

LACROSSE BECOMES PAC-12 SPONSORED SPORT
With the establishment of the Arizona State women's lacrosse program, the Pac-12 was able to field the minimum number of required teams to qualify for a conference championship and NCAA tournament automatic-qualifying bid. This upcoming season, each team will play one another twice, home and away, with the first-ever Pac-12 lacrosse championships taking place in Boulder, Colo., Apr. 26-29.

LOOKING AHEAD
Following Friday's game, the Ducks hit the road for spring break opening a three-game road trip by making up their postponed game against No. 14 Towson Monday, March 26, at 3 p.m. PT.