Box Score April 24, 2016 Final Stats
LOS ANGELES - Freshman Shannon Cross scored two goals with an assist against the nation's top-ranked defense but USC's first-half output proved too much for the Aggies to overcome, as UC Davis lost to the No. 5 Women of Troy by a 14-4 final in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation women's lacrosse regular-season finale at McAlister Field Sunday.
The Aggies even their overall record to 7-7 and move to 5-4 in conference. USC improves to 17-0 for the year and completes its perfect MPSF season at 9-0.
Senior attacker Sam Axenroth added a goal and an assist while senior Ellie Delich accounted for the remaining goal. Four UC Davis players â€" Delich, senior Mary Doyle, freshman Taylor Cuenin and senior Savannah Hadley â€" each had two caused turnovers among the team's 11. Cuenin also had three ground balls and shared the team draw control lead of two.
For USC, junior Michaela Michael and seniors Maggie Mawhinney, Caroline deLyra, Amanda Johansen and Kelsey Dreyer each scored two goals. The Trojans seized control of the game by scoring 11 unanswered in the first 22 minutes, only allowing the Aggies one shot during that run.
Axenroth assisted Cross to put UC Davis on the board just under the seven-minute mark, but Mawhinney responded three minutes later to set the board at 12-1 by halftime. Cross scored in the second minute after the break then fed Axenroth with another goal in the 37th, but the Trojan lead never withered by fewer than nine. Delich added the Aggies' fourth goal with three minutes left to play.
USC outshot UC Davis by a 17-2 margin in the first half and won 10 of the 14 draws. The Aggies outdrew the Trojans, 5-1, in the second half but could only muster six attempts at the cage. They also suffered from a season-high 25 turnovers, with USC notching 15 steals as a team.
UC Davis returns to action as the No. 4 seed in the MPSF tournament, hosted by Stanford from Thursday through Sunday. The Aggies finished the regular season in a tie for fourth with Denver, but win the tiebreaker for seeding due to the head-to-head win earlier in April. USC, Stanford and Colorado hold the top three seeds, while Oregon took the sixth spot with its 4-5 ledger. This will be the Aggies first appearance in the conference championship tournament since 2010.
| UC Davis (7-7, 5-4 MPSF) | 1 | 3 | - | 4 |
| No. 5 USC (17-0, 9-0) | 12 | 2 | - | 14 |
GOALS - UC DAVIS: Shannon Cross 2, Sam Axenroth 1, Ellie Delich 1. USC: Maggie Mawhinney 2, Caroline deLyra 2, Amanda Johansen 2, Kelsey Dreyer 2, Michaela Michael 2, Courtney Tarleton 1, Gabbi Klein 1, Kylie Drexel 1, Gabby McMahon 1.
ASSISTS - UC DAVIS: Sam Axenroth 1, Shannon Cross 1. USC: Caroline deLyra 2, Kelsey Davey 1, Kelsey Dreyer 1, Kylie Drexel 1,
GOALIE SAVES - UC DAVIS: Lauren Ali 3 (60:00). USC: Cassandra Collins 1 (24:24), Gussie Johns 0 (19:30), Liz Shaeffer 0 (16:06).
