The BYU women's lacrosse team went to Santa Barbara, Calif., to open the 2026 spring lacrosse season with three matches in 2 days against Boise State, Oregon, and UCSB at the Happy Canyon Piocho Polo Fields.
The Cougars started with a double header on Feb. 6, when they took on Boise State and Oregon.
Junior goalie Anna Kreipl held the Broncos to a shutout in the first half against her hometown team and the Cougars built off of that with 13 total goals and nine different Cougars scored in the game.
The Cougars routed the Broncos, winning the game 13-3 in full time.
A few hours later, the Cougars played against the Oregon Ducks. The game was in the first half.
However, after halftime, the Cougars would go on a run scoring four goals in five minutes and never looked back, keeping the momentum and forcing Oregon to score only one goal in the entire second half.
The defense was a massive part of the halftime rout with senior defender Emily Osterloh, helping the Cougars cause 16 turnovers, and helping BYU prevail 12-6 over Oregon.
The Cougars then played top-ranked UCSB on Saturday morning in a match where Cougars would show grit against a quality team.
The Cougars were up the whole game until the four quarter came around and it was a tail of different quarters for BYU.
The Cougars ran out of gas and fell to UCSB 6-16 in a draining loss for BYU.
“Obviously not the outcome we wanted, but showed us what we’re capable of - if we can put a full game together.” coach Melissa Nash said. “[It] gives us some things to work on before our next trip in two weeks to Arizona.”
Overall, a quality weekend for the Cougars as their spring season continues in Tempe, Ariz., in the Cactus Classic Tournament on Feb. 20.