No. 14 Colorado Crushes UConn in Final Non-Conference Game

Wednesday, March 18

3 p.m.

Colorado

6-2

UConn

3-5

UConn

Colorado

No. 14 Colorado Crushes UConn in Final Non-Conference Game

March 18, 2026 | Lacrosse

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Rowan Edson earns first-career hat trick

By: Macy Mohlenkamp, Athletic Communications Associate

BOULDER – No. 14 Colorado defeated UConn in the first matchup in the program's history, 11-5, on Wednesday at Kittredge Field, marking the Buffaloes' second victory of the week.

The Buffs (6-2) ended their non-conference season with a perfect home record, winning all four of their home matchups. Colorado has also held all its opponents to single-digit scores this season, including four ranked opponents.

CU had more ground balls (16-12), draw controls (11-7), caused turnovers (9-8) and assists (6-1) than UConn.

"The team showed up and competed today," head coach Ann Elliott Whidden stated after the game. "We knew how aggressive this UConn team was and how good they were in a lot of different spots, just attacking and putting pressure on you. So, I'm proud of our defense for handling that, especially the first few minutes of the game, just being able to kind of stay with our plan [and] do a decent job of slowing them down."

Four different Buffaloes scored for Colorado, including Rowan Edson scoring her first career hat trick. Lily Assini led the game with six points from four goals and two assists. Edson doubled her previous career-high in points with her three goals and an assist. Jaimey Hill scored another two goals and assisted on two others. Teagan Ryan continued her hot start to the season, scoring two more goals to increase her season total to a team-high 18.

"It's definitely exciting heading into conference play on a win," Assini expressed. "Just to get that confidence for us to come next Saturday [against San Diego State]. Obviously, there's still some stuff that we can work on on both ends of the field, but it's definitely exciting at home to be able to get this W."

How It Happened
The Huskies took an early lead in the first quarter, scoring in the first 29 seconds. The game stayed at 1-0 for the Huskies until a foul on UConn allowed Edson to tie the game with a free-position goal at 12:20. Neither team scored for eight minutes, but Elena Oh picked up two saves and kept the Buffaloes ahead. Assini assisted Ryan on a man-up goal with four minutes remaining, and Edson closed out the first quarter with her second score to hand CU the 3-1 lead.

Colorado extended its scoring run to four unanswered goals and pushed the lead to three with Hill's first tally, assisted by Assini, three minutes into the second quarter. The Huskies scored their second goal, but a foul less than a minute later allowed Ryan to convert from the 8-meter and regain the three-goal lead.

UConn had back-to-back shots, both of which were saved by Oh. The Huskies found the back of the net on a free-position shot, closing the gap to 5-3 with 4:23 to play in the half, but that was as close as they would get the rest of the afternoon.

In the final two minutes of the half, Assini extended the Black and Gold's lead to 8-3 with three consecutive goals. Hil picked up the assists on the first two, and Edson earned an assist on Assini's final goal of the quarter with six seconds on the clock. Assini scored her second and third goals, which came just 12 seconds apart, both in the final 20 seconds of the half.

"I have to give the credit to my teammates," Assini explained. "They're the ones who were able to see me. Going hard to the net works, and it worked today. So, I'm happy about it, but I got to give credit to my teammates for making me open and seeing me where I was open."

The third quarter was quiet for both teams, but Oh picked up two more saves and kept the Huskies scoreless for the entire third quarter. With 1:48 remaining, Shoup assisted Hill on her second goal of the game and put the Buffaloes up by six, 9-3, heading into the final 15 minutes.

UConn scored a man-up free position goal to start the fourth quarter. But Assini again took the opportunity to score a free-position goal of her own after a foul, earning her sixth point of the game and making it 10-4 with 7:30 to go.

The Huskies made their final goal off a free-position shot with 4:48 on the clock, and after a scoreless five minutes for the Buffs, Edson notched her third goal, also on a free-position chance, to end the game, 11-5.

Up Next
The Buffs will host their conference home opener against San Diego State on Saturday, Mar. 28, at 12 p.m. MT. Fans can tune in on ESPN+.

Notes
Colorado improves to 1-0 all-time against UConn...All four CU goal-scorers registered two or more goals…Edson earned her first career hat trick…Molly Reed led the game with four draw controls…Eight Buffs had at least one caused turnover...This is the second time this season that two or more Buffaloes have scored a hat trick, the first being in the win over Towson on Feb. 21…Shoup's 18-game goal-scoring streak came to an end, but she did extend her points streak to 19 straight games…Assini pushed her consecutive point streak to 24 games and her goal-scoring streak to a team-best 15 games…Shuop's assist tied her for 14th in program history with assistant coach Sam McGee with 96 career points…Assni moved up to 7th in program history with 41 career assists…Peluso tied Johanna Fusco for 8th in program history with 95 career ground balls…Oh tied Danielle Heintz for 4th in CU history with 14 career wins.

Season and single-game tickets are on sale now at CUBuffs.com/WlaxTix

For more information on Colorado Lacrosse, please visit cubuffs.com/wlax. Fans of the Buffs can follow @cubuffswlax on Instagram, X, TikTok, and Facebook.