Buffs Advance To Big 12 Tournament Championship

Thursday, April 30

Gainesville, Fla.

5 p.m.

Colorado

12-3, 4-1

Arizona State

8-9, 3-2

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
Arizona St.	1	3	1	2	7
Colorado	3	5	3	2	13

April 30, 2026 | Lacrosse

Box Score Donate To Lacrosse

By: Aiden Tank, Athletic Communications

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – An offensive flurry to end the first half, spurred by Rowan Edson and Maddie Shoup, led the second-seeded Colorado Buffaloes to a 13-7 win over Arizona State in the semifinals of the 2026 Big 12 Lacrosse Tournament at Donald R. Dizney Stadium Thursday night.

Colorado (13-3) advances to the Big 12 Tournament Championship after taking down the Sun Devils (8-10) for the second time in the last week. This is the seventh conference championship appearance for the Buffs and the first since 2014. Colorado is looking for its first-ever conference tournament championship.

"We knew coming into this, it was going to be a tougher game than we had last Saturday against them in Boulder," head coach Ann Elliott Whidden said. "I thought Arizona State came out aggressive and fought and really challenged us in a lot of different ways. I'm proud of the group for fighting and not expecting it to be easy, and finding a way to get it done. Our ability to respond in the game, when they went on a couple of runs, we were able to gain possession and respond on the offensive end, which was great."

Colorado improved to 11-4 against the Sun Devils all-time, while also exacting a measure of revenge against the team that ended the Buffaloes' season in last year's Big 12 tournament semifinal on home soil at Prentup Field.

Offensively, the Buffs were led by Edson, Teagan Ryan, and Shoup, who all had hat-tricks. Edson and Shoup did most of their work in the first half, scoring three goals apiece. Ryan picked it up in the second half with two goals to go along with another from Shoup to give her four on the night.

CU was able to outshoot the Sun Devils 29-14 overall and 21-3 on shots on goal. The Buffs were also able to control possession with a 14-8 advantage on draw controls and 20-12 on ground balls.

"Possession was huge for us," Whidden commented. "The draw is huge for us, obviously today, but it'll be huge on Saturday against Florida as well. That is something I think we've continued to improve on, and our ability to give ourselves a few extra possessions definitely helps overall."

HOW IT HAPPENED
Colorado opened the scoring with a goal at 11:15 from Shoup to take an early lead. Edson and Jaimey Hill followed soon after to take a 3-0 lead with 7:22 remaining in the first. The score was unchanged until an ASU goal with nine seconds left to close the opening quarter with a 3-1 advantage for the Buffs.

Shoup scored the first goal of the second quarter with 10:12 on the clock. Ryan got in on the action only 10 seconds later, scoring directly off the draw control on a fast break to take a 5-1 lead.

Arizona State responded by scoring three unanswered goals to bring the score within one at 5-4.

Following a timeout, the Buffs settled down and found success on the offensive end from two familiar faces. Shoup scored the first one out, followed by Edson with two before the half, with the last one coming from a free position. Colorado took an 8-4 lead into the break.

Lily Assini scored to extend the lead to 9-4 only 58 seconds into the second half. The Sun Devils got one on the board soon after bringing the score back to 9-5.

After over seven minutes with neither team scoring, the Buffs got two in the final two minutes from Ryan and Shoup to go into the fourth quarter with an 11-5 lead.

The Sun Devils made one final push to start the final quarter. They opened with two goals in the first three minutes to cut the lead to 11-7.

Needing a goal, Ryan stepped up, earning a hat trick with her third of the game to put CU up 12-7 with 8:50 remaining.

The final goal of the game came from Averi Gardner to put the Buffs up 13-7 for the remainder of the game.

UP NEXT
The Buffs will advance to the 2026 Big 12 women's lacrosse tournament championship on Sunday against the host school and top-seeded Florida. The match will take place on Saturday, May 2, at 2 p.m. MT and will be broadcast live on ESPNU from Donald R. Dizney Stadium.

NOTES
Colorado continues its streak of having not allowed any opponent to reach 10 goals in all 16 games this season…Colorado has won a game at the conference tournament in 11 of 13 possible years…Shoup recorded her 12^th career hat-trick and her fifth of the season, as well as setting a new career-high with 12 shots…Edson recorded hat tricks in back-to-back games for the first time in her career…Jess Peluso led the team with five caused turnovers and draw controls…Assini has recorded a point in 32 straight games.

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