DENVER, COLO. – In women's lacrosse action on Sunday afternoon, the Villanova Wildcats traveled to the Mile High City where they lost to the University of Denver by a score of 19-9. With the setback, Villanova finishes the regular season with a 6-10 overall record and a 4-6 BIG EAST Conference mark, while Denver improves to 12-1 and 10-1 in league play.

Despite today's loss, the Wildcats have qualified for the upcoming BIG EAST Tournament. Villanova will be the No. 4 seed and will take on No. 1 seed Denver in the semifinals on Thursday, May. 6. The tournament will be held in Washington, D.C., on the campus of Georgetown University.

Denver controlled play early racing to a 3-0 lead. Junior Alexa Tsahalis (Mahwah, N.J.) got the Wildcats on the board and made it a 3-1 game, before the Pioneers scored two of the next three goals to take a 5-2 lead.

After senior Brittany Bruno (Rumson, N.J.) scored her second goal of the game to cut the Denver lead to 5-3, the Pioneers scored five consecutive goals to open-up a 10-3 advantage with 10:45 remaining in the first half.  

Villanova ended a scoreless stretch that lasted 13:13, when Bruno scored her third goal of the game with 6:05 left in the half to make it a 10-4 game. The Pioneers ended the first half scoring on a goal by Caroline Wiseman with 1:42 on the clock. The Wiseman goal sent Denver to halftime with an 11-4 lead.

The Wildcats dominated play over the first five minutes of the second half scoring three straight goals to slice the Denver advantage to 11-7. The three Villanova goals came from Bruno, Katie Comerford (Yorktown Heights, N.Y.) and Haley Driscoll (Denville, N.J.). 

Denver stopped the Villanova momentum by scoring three unanswered goals and six of the game's next seven goals to take a commanding 17-8 lead at the 14:53 mark.

In the loss, Bruno led the Wildcats with four goals, while Comerford and Tsahalis had two goals each. Both also added two assists. Junior goalie Alexa Moro (Westport, Conn.) was credited with eight saves.

Denver was paced by Bea Behrins and Eli Radochonski who had five goals apiece. Wiseman finished with three goals, while goalie Amelia Cole had 14 saves.

The Pioneers owned a slim 32-31 advantage in shots, while Villanova had an 18-17 advantage in ground balls.      

During today's game, junior Sydney Frank (Bel Air, Md.) set the Villanova school record for career caused turnovers with 70.