The 2025 lacrosse season has finally come to the forefront, and the Colorado Buffaloes (0-0, 0-0 Big 12) are looking for a strong start to a new era of Big 12 lacrosse. The Buffs have a lot of talent returning from 2024, a season in which they came up just short of the NCAA Tournament after falling in the Pac-12 Championship Game.
Good news for Colorado, an opportunity for revenge is up for grabs to kick the season off on Thursday when the team travels to No. 15 Stanford (1-0, 0-0 ACC). The Cardinal got the best of the Buffaloes twice last year, including an 11-8 victory in the conference title game.
The Buffs will have some of their top talent return from a season ago, highlighted by Madeline Pisani. The graduate student and team captain was named 2025 Preseason Big 12 Attack Player of the Year after dominating the 2024 season with 62, goals, 75 points and 127 shots, leading the Pac-12 in all three categories.
Pisani was also named as an honorable mention for the USA Lacrosse Preseason All-American team.
Lily Assini, the junior midfielder from Cherry Creek High School, is Colorado’s other captain for the 2025 campaign. Assini made All Pac-12 2nd Team in 2024, was voted to the Preseason All-Big 12 Team this year, and is an all-around force for the Buffaloes that can contribute in multiple ways. She scored 12 goals, had 36 draw controls and forced 12 turnovers in 2024.
Jess Peluso, a junior defender, is the third and final Buff who was nominated for the Preseason All-Big 12 Team. Peluso was a stud for Colorado in 2024 and has caused 52 turnovers in her two years at CU.
This year's lacrosse schools in the Big 12 are Colorado, Arizona State, Florida, Cincinnati, San Diego State and UC Davis. The Buffs went 4-0 against Arizona State, San Diego State and UC Davis in 2024, but will have their hands full with No. 5 Florida, who come to Boulder on April 12.
Other notable opponents include No. 2 Northwestern, No. 4 Michigan, No. 13 Stony Brook, No. 23 Denver and No. 24 USC. The Buffs look to avenge losses in 2024 to the Wildcats and Wolverines early on in the season.
On the coaching front, head coach Ann Elliott Whidden begins her 12th season at the helm of CU lacrosse. Mitch Fenton returns as an assistant coach, but three new, young names join the staff in 2025. Former Colorado stars Ashley Stokes and Sam McGee will be assistant coaches along with Bailey Cheetham, a former player and captain for Johns Hopkins. Having this former star power fresh off their own lacrosse careers returning as coaches will be very valuable for Whidden’s team as she looks to lead the Buffs to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019.
Colorado returns 20 players who appeared in at least four games in 2024, and that doesn’t include Morgan Pence. Pence had her season derailed by injuries in 2024, only appearing in two games, but is back and ready to be a dominant attacker after a very strong 2023 season. Pence has 70 goals and 101 points in her career at Colorado.
This team has the pieces to have one of the best seasons in the history of CU lacrosse. Despite a plethora of tough opponents on the schedule, the combination of returning talent and excellent coaching can take this team all the way to the tournament.
The season opener against No. 15 Stanford starts at 4 p.m. MT and can be watched on ACCNX, a streaming channel for ACC Network.
The rankings used for this article are from the IWCLA Coaches Poll, published on 2/10/25