BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Stanford proved last year that a team from the western half of the country could make the NCAA women’s lacrosse tournament.

Denver wants to prove this year that Stanford is not alone out west as a rising lacrosse program. So far, the 15th-ranked Pioneers are making a good case for themselves. On Monday night, they improved to 7-1 following a 15-2 drubbing of host University of Maryland-Baltimore County.

While the Pioneers played at UMBC, the stands had plenty of fans rooting for the visiting team, which includes eight Marylanders. And Denver’s first-year coach, Liza Kelly, is a Baltimore native who took over the program this season after Kathy Reese became the coach at Maryland.

Kelly spent the previous five seasons at Boston University, where she compiled a 64-33 record and won the America East title and an NCAA tournament berth the last two years.

“I think I was fortunate to be able to inherit this team,” Kelly said. “From not recruiting them and then to just be able to walk in and have the players accept a new coaching staff and new coaching system is incredible. They have been really open-minded to everything.”

Senior midfielder Kristie Leggio leads Denver in scoring with 27 goals and 13 assists. Right behind her is freshman midfielder Ali Flury (Broadneck High graduate), who has 32 goals and three assists. For the year, Denver has outscored its opposition, 123-67.

“We’re crossing our fingers that we can win our conference,” said Denver attack Megan Carver (Seton Keough), who has 14 goals and seven assists this weekend. “We need to get more respect from teams on the East Coast. We need to show we’re a good team. Right after going to Denver, people questioned what we were doing, but I saw them as a program that was building something special, and I wanted to be a part of that.”

Denver sophomore defender Natasha Davies (Broadneck) said the Pioneers have to play extraordinarily well in every game on their schedule because they do not have an automatic berth playing in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. The six-team league also includes Stanford Oregon, California, St. Mary’s (Calif.) and California-Davis.

“We’ve all known in our hearts that we have what it takes to make the tournament,” Davies said. “All of our games on the East Coast are big. It’s especially great to play in front of our friends and family who don’t get a chance to see us play too often. Every game is important for us trying to make a statement.”

DENVER NOTES

» Denver, currently ranked No. 15 in the country, plays its second game in three days at 3:30 today when it takes on Cornell at Maryland.

» Local players on Denver’s roster include attack Megan Carver (Seton Keough), midfielder Ali Flury (Broadneck), defender Nathasha Davies (Broadneck), attack Steph Coyne (Bryn Mawr), defender Danielle Provance (Seton Keough), defender Kelly O’Connell (Seton Keough) and goalie Becky Childs (Maryvale Prep).

» Coyne earned Mountain Pacific Sports Federation player of the week honors last week after finishing with four goals and four assists in an 18-12 win over George Washington. Coyne had two goals and an assist Monday at UMBC and now has 13 goals and 13 assists on the year.