Led by senior goalie Caroline Federighi’s season-high 12 saves, Oregon lacrosse won their first round game of the MPSF tournament yesterday in Denver, Colo., defeating USC 7-6.
“Caroline was huge, she was absolutely huge the whole game,” head coach Jen Beck told GoDucks.com. “She just exudes confidence. We switched our defense a couple times and she was our general out there. We talked about putting the shooters under duress and not giving them point blank shots. And if they did that, they knew that Caroline was there to back them up.”
With their win, Oregon advances to the semifinals and will face top-seeded Denver today at 3 p.m. The Ducks fell to the Pioneers last week 11-5.
“I think Denver rightfully earned the No.1 seed,” Beck said. “Denver hasn’t played since they played us, so they’ve been prepping for either USC or us. I know we’re excited and we’re to let this victory soak in, but we’ll get right back at it tomorrow morning and prepare for Denver.”
The Trojans were the first to score with a goal from Alex Moore, just two minutes into play.
Oregon then scored three straight with goals by Carly O’Connell, Olivia Pyne, and Holly Johnson. That run gave the Ducks a 3-1 lead with about 18 minutes of play left in the first half.
Moore struck again for the Trojans just under 17 minutes in the first and sparked USC’s offense as they picked up two more goals and took a 4-3 lead.
Pyne tallied another for Oregon to tie the score up at 4-4 heading into halftime.
USC took charge in the second half and scored two straight goals around the 15-minute mark of the second half to take a 6-4 lead.
O’Connell gave the Ducks a fighting chance when she scored two straight goals to tie the score even at 6-6.
“Before the game J-May (Jen Derby) gave me a look and just said, ‘do work’ and it really fired me up,” said O’Connell. “I felt like I had to take leadership since they were marking Shannon up the entire game.”
With under two minutes left, Johnson found senior Nikki Puszcz who found the back of the net for a 7-6 lead.
However, the Trojans did not go down without a fight, as USC caused two turnovers with just one minute to go left in the game. Federighi was able to stay strong in the net and made two big-time saves to help the Ducks hold on to their lead and advance to the second round.
“I was just really, really pumped and excited,” said Federighi about that last minute of play. “I had to have that ‘no mercy’ mindset. Nothing was going to get through me. My defenders were throwing their bodies around to stop the ball and were doing everything they could, so I wasn’t going to let them down.”
USC controlled the draw 10-5 and outshot the Ducks 26-20, but it was Federighi’s 12 saves that really helped the Ducks earn their spot in the next round.