After a week of games on the East Coast, No. 10 Stanford lacrosse (6-2, 1-0 MPSF) hosts home games against conference-opponents Denver and Colorado. These games mark the continuation of the Cardinal’s conference play — the only conference game the team has played was a win in mid-February against St. Mary’s.

Stanford and Denver have developed a rivalry that has gone back and forth for the past few years. Denver, the Cardinal’s biggest conference threat besides USC, clinched the MPSF title in the 2014 season, giving Stanford its first conference-championship loss.

Last season, the Cardinal beat the Pioneers in a high-scoring 14-7 win. Stanford came out strong on offense within the first 10 minutes of the game, scoring 4 unanswered goals. Not long after that scoring run and one goal scored by Denver, the Cardinal went on to score 6 more unanswered goals, moving the score to 10-1. Stanford dominated offensively the rest of the game and held Denver to only 7 goals. Senior Mackenzie Tesei notched a career-high 4 goals during that match, while senior Lucy Dikeou also tallied a hat trick.

Meanwhile, Stanford will play their second home game of the weekend on Sunday against another team from the Centennial State, the Colorado Buffs. Colorado has only had a lacrosse program for three years, and is still developing into a conference threat. However, last season the Buffs put up a fight against Stanford, losing by a close 16-14 margin.

Stanford plays Denver on Friday at 7 p.m, before taking on Colorado on Sunday at noon at Laird Q. Cagan Stadium.

Contact Sydney Shaw at sshaw17 ‘at’ stanford.edu.