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Runner-up national champs Louisville beat CU women
Dec 22nd
Release: December 21, 2013
By: Troy Andre, Assistant SID
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Lexy Kresl had 17 points and Jen Reese corralled her second career double-double, but Louisville had a little bit more Saturday afternoon at the KFC Yum! Center as the No. 7 ranked Cardinals outlasted No. 11 Colorado 69-62.
Louisville All-American candidate Shoni Schimmel had a game-high 30 points, including 13-of-16 from the line as Cardinals improved to 12-1.
Reese had 14 points despite an off-day from the floor (4-of-14), and pulled down a team-season-high 14 rebounds for the Buffaloes (9-1) who saw their 33-game nonconference regular season win streak end.
It was a tough, physical battle, the kind one would expect from a game between two of the nation’s top teams. But that aggressiveness cost both teams at times; and Colorado a little more in the end. A total of 56 fouls were called, 32 on Colorado. The teams combined for 70 free throw attempts, Louisville hitting 24-of-40 while the Buffaloes were 17-of-30.
Colorado held a potent Louisville offense well below its average. The Cardinals entered the game averaging over 90 points per game, and over 100 in their last four. The Buffaloes were able to slow Louisville down and force the 2013 NCAA runner-ups to score in the half court.
“They get a lot of their points in transition,” Kresl said. “One of our goals was to slow them down and make them execute their plays and that worked to our advantage.”
But Colorado gave the Cardinals more opportunities than they hoped. The Buffaloes were outrebounded for the first time this year, 52-47. Louisville crashed the offensive glass, pulling down 21 on that side of the court. Even though second-chance points were even (11-11), it was the missed opportunities for stops that hurt the Buffs.
“Defensive rebounding is something that we pride ourselves on, but it let us down,” CU head coach Linda Lappe said. “I knew offensive rebounding was something they were good at. At the end of the game it came down to if we could make stops, but overall proud of our effort; how hard we played.”
“Just not boxing out, they got a few too many opportunities on the offensive boards,” Kresl added.
Despite the rebounding struggles, Colorado was in the game the whole way as neither team led by more than seven points and featured nine lead changes.
Kresl gave Colorado an early 8-5 lead with a 3-pointer, but
LEXY KRESYL scored 17-points in the game.
Bria Smith hit back-to-back jumpers to even the game at 10-10.
The Cardinals pushed their lead to 24-18 on a Sara Hammond layup with 8:01 left in the first half, but Colorado answered with its biggest run.
Kresl, who scored 15 of her 17 points in the first half, answered Hammond with a jumper that set off a 13-0 run. Arielle Roberson put back a Reese miss and a pair of Kresl free throws tied the game at 24-24.
Lauren Huggins broke the tie with a long 3-pointer to give the Buffaloes a 27-24 lead, forcing a Louisville timeout. At the beginning of the timeout Louisville’s bench received a technical foul giving the Buffaloes an opportunity to extend the lead.
Kresl hit the two technical free throws coming out of the timeout to give the Buffaloes their largest lead at 29-24. Unfortunately that was it for Colorado in the first half and the Cardinals came storming back.
Schimmel finally ended Colorado’s run with a runner in the lane, drew a foul and completed the 3-point play. Younger sister Jude Schimmel then connected on a pair of fast break layups in the closing minutes as a 9-0 run gave the Cardinals a 33-29 lead at the half.
Colorado quickly erased the Louisville halftime lead as a Sborov 3-pointer ended a 7-2 CU run out of the break for a 36-35 Buffs lead.
However, shortly after that the fouls started to catch up with Colorado. Sborov picked up her third moments after her 3-pointer. Brittany Wilson then picked up No. 4 with nearly 13 minutes left with Ashley Wilson and Roberson matching that total moments later.
Still the Buffaloes continued to stay close. Sborov hit a bucket to tie the game at 46-46 with 9:44 remaining, but the Cardinals reeled off seven straight behind the Schimmel sisters.
Louisville then kept Colorado just out of reach, mainly from the foul line. The Cardinals, who entered the game hitting 51 percent from the floor on the season, made just 34 percent for the game, and only 29 percent (9-of-31) in the final 20 minutes.
The trouble was Colorado wasn’t much better. A 46-percent shooting team for the season, CU connected on just 37 percent, although the Buffaloes were closer to their average in the second half (45 percent).
“(Louisville) helped us get ready for (Pac-12) conference,” Kresl said. “We grew as a team throughout the game.”
In the end, the game was put away at the line. Louisville hit 18-of-24 from the line in the second half compared to just 10-of-18 for Colorado.
The Buffs did get a few stops, a pair of free throws by Kresl and one each from Roberson and Reese cut the Louisville lead to 63-59 with 1:10 left. The defense came up big when Jude Schimmel missed a jumper with under a minute left, and Roberson grabbed the rebound. Rachel Hargis eventually ended up at the line, hitting 1-of-2 to make it a one possession game at 63-60.
But that was it as Shoni Schimmel clamped down hitting four free throws down the stretch, and scored the final points on a breakaway basket in the closing seconds.
“I like how our team fought throughout the game,” Lappe said. “You want to be in a position to have a chance to win at the end of the game; we had that, but just didn’t make enough plays down the stretch. We learned a lot about this game. You want nonconference to prepare you for conference, and we felt this did that today.”
Colorado will return to action on Sunday, Dec. 29, by hosting Southern Utah at 2 p.m. at the Coors Events Center.
Colorado Buffaloes Women’s Basketball
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CU soccer socks it to USC ladies of Troy
Oct 26th
BOULDER – In a hard-fought, aggressive game, the University of Colorado soccer team took down the Southern California Women of Troy 2-1 in this season’s penultimate game at Prentup Field.
In a game that saw 34 total fouls and five yellow cards, the Buffaloes came out the victor behind goals by two freshmen. Brie Hooks proved that sitting out for four games due to an injury wouldn’t slow her down. In the 66th minute, she netted her eighth goal of the season to give the Buffs a 1-0 lead. Hooks was at it again in the 72nd, assisting classmate Alyssa Herwatt to her first goal as a Buff.
“It was definitely tough not being able to play for a while, and just watching the games was kind of hard,” Hooks said. “But, then coming back in I was a little bit nervous just because it’s a knee injury and those are a little bit sketchy. Definitely as the game went on I started to get my confidence back, especially with that goal, it really helps to get my feet back on the field, so it was a good way to come back.”
With less than three minutes remaining in regulation, the Trojans found the back of the net, with Marlee Carrillo heading on in off her goalkeeper Caroline Stanley’s free kick, but it wouldn’t be enough to push the game to extra minutes.
“I think the first half was sluggish,” said CU head coach Danny Sanchez, who earned his 20th win with the Buffs on Friday. “I don’t think we were sharp in the attack, but we defended fine. I thought in the second half as the game started to get stretched, we created more opportunities. We’re happy with the win. USC – don’t be fooled by their record – is a very good team, but we know we have big challenges coming our way. We need to be sharper and play better.”
The win marks the first time the Buffs have gotten two wins over a single Pac-12 Conference opponent (the Buffs beat the Trojans 1-0 in double overtime in Los Angeles last season). The victory improved the Buffs’ record to 12-3-1 overall, 4-2-1 Pac-12. The Buffs have recorded 12 wins for the first time since 2008 and four conference victories for the first time since 2010 (when CU was a member of the Big 12). Goalkeeper Annie Brunner has now recorded 31 victories in the net for the Buffs, making her the second-most winningest keeper in program history.
USC falls to 6-8-2 overall, 1-5-1 Pac-12. The Trojans are looking to return to their unbeaten streak ways that saw them tying then-No. 8 California and defeating then-No. 5 Stanford.
The game began with a defensive battle. In the ninth minute, Katie Johnson, who tied for a team-high two shots and one on goal, got the Trojan offense going. She rushed the net and sent her shot at Brunner, who picked up her first and only save of the game.
Anne Stuller led the Buffs with six shots and four on goal. She dominated the offense in the opening 21 minutes. In the 12th minute, she edged up the left side and took a quick shot that hit the post. Two minutes later, she was in a similar spot, with Olivia Pappalardo close behind, sliding one at USC’s Stanley. The Buffs remained tight on offense, but a strong Trojan pressure made it hard for the Buffs to get a good look at the net.
In the 21st minute, the Buffs had their best opportunity of the half. Stuller once again approached the net from the left, causing Stanley to dive for another save. While the keeper was still down, Pappalardo swooped in but was unable to get her shot past Stanley. Despite some contact in the box, the Buffs were forced to get back on defense.
USC was finally able to respond in the 27th minute with Johnson hitting the ball wide this time. Multiple fouls on the Trojans helped the Buffs make the Trojans play from behind, despite the game remaining scoreless. Following two more shots by the Buffs, the Trojans were able to get their best look in the closing minutes of the half, with Tanya Smarzich beating Hayley Hughes in the backfield, but hitting the right post to close out the second half.
The game only got more physical in the second half. In the first minutes, USC made the Buffs’ defense work for stops. The Women of Troy got a corner kick in the 47th minute, and capitalized with back-to-back shots, though the first was blocked and the second went wide.
In the same span that the Buffs took two shots, the first a Pappalardo header that forced a save and the second a Stuller free kick that blasted just high, the Trojans got called for five fouls and received their first of four yellow cards. Despite their foul trouble, USC was able to answer with three consecutive corner kicks, though none would help them to a shot at the goal.
The Buffs were able to grab the upper-hand in the 66th minute. A free kick by Alex Huynh found Hooks near the net. From 10 yards out, she beat the keeper down low and shot to the far corner to give the Buffs the 1-0 lead.
“(Coach Sanchez) was definitely holding me off, and then I came in and he just wanted me to go in there with all the effort I had and help us get a good start to the second half,” Hooks said. “So, when I went in there all I was thinking about as the ball was coming over was just, ‘I need to finish this, and get the half going so we can hopefully get more goals after that.’”
USC was able to get a shot of its own in the 70th minute, with Carrillo hitting one wide, but the Trojans couldn’t control the ball for long. In the 72nd minute, the Buffs were hungry for more. Hooks connected with Herwatt, who from 25 yards out chipped the ball to the net. The ball bounced off the cross bar and fell in to give the Buffs’ a solid 2-0 lead.
“I was definitely scared I was offsides at first, that’s why I kind of hesitated, but I was just like, ‘why not take it,’” Herwatt said. “I’ve had a couple of opportunities throughout this season that haven’t gone in, so I was really excited this one finally got in. It felt great to have my first goal.”
With a goal and an assist in the game, Hooks continues to shine in the freshman offensive record books. She ranks third with eight goals and fourth with 18 points.
Following their goal, the Buffs were only able to get one more shot off, with Stuller hitting one at the keeper. USC managed just two shots in the final 20 minutes, but their last helped tighten the score. At 87:06, Carrillo netted her third of the season, heading the ball in off a free kick from her keeper.
“They’re a good team, (USC’s Marlee Carillo) had scored a couple goals late against Arizona as well,” Sanchez said. “So, it was a great ball and I don’t think there was anything cheap about it, we had numbers we just didn’t get it, but that’s why we had a two-goal lead. It made the last couple minutes a little antsy for us, but I was happy how we killed off the game after that.”
USC continued to press in the closing minutes, grabbing another yellow card. Though the Trojans continued to fight, the Buffs’ 2-1 lead was too much to overcome.
Next up for the Buffs is No. 2 UCLA. Stuller says playing in her final game at Prentup Field will be “surreal,” but she wants to leave the field on a good note.
“They’re a good team, definitely a favorite in the College Cup this year,” Stuller said. “But, I think the way we’ve been playing we can definitely hang with them and we’re going to try to get a win, we’re not going for anything less.”
Come out to Prentup to celebrate Senior Day on Sunday, Oct. 27 at noon with your CU soccer team. Make sure to stand in the Buff Brigade cheering section and cheer the Buffs to victory as they take on No. 2 UCLA in the last home game of the season!
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Marlee Horn
Graduate Assistant SID
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CU Women’s Soccer Opens Season, Remain Undefeated Against Northern Colorado
Aug 24th
Two weather delays in the Cup’s opening game at CIBER Field at the University of Denver Stadium couldn’t damper the Buffaloes’ play. The Buffs outshot the Bears 16-5, including a 7-2 advantage in the second half. Colorado extends its perfect record against Northern Colorado, never losing a game or allowing a goal in seven meetings.
It took just over 33 minutes for freshman Brie Hooks to score her first goal as a Buff, and then just another 45 to score again. She is the first Buff in program history to score two goals in her Colorado debut.
“Scoring a couple goals is always a good debut,” CU head coach Danny Sanchez said. “Obviously she’s dynamic, she’s good with the ball and she had a couple nice finishes. I think it was the product of pressure on the second one. The first one was a great ball from Darcy. It was a good debut for sure.”
Other CU newcomers also made their presence felt, with Santa Clara transfer Brooke Rice and freshman Alex Huynh both making starts in their Colorado debuts.
“It was good to get in all six field player freshmen,” Sanchez said. “They got some time and did well and showed some good things. Obviously Alex (Huynh) did well in the midfield and obviously Brie (Hooks) with a couple of goals, but the other ones – we put Hannah (Dearborn) in the back and she did well. Big picture, it was good to get them some minutes so that when they go in again, there’s not that jittery first game.”
For the third time in as many games at CIBER Field, the Buffs scored off an own goal, getting on the board in the 21st minute.
In the first six minutes, Colorado took two corner kicks, but couldn’t get a shot off until the 14th minute, when co-captain Hayley Hughes booted one high. Northern Colorado responded, with a corner kick by Makayla McBride that led to a high shot by Tassie Forst at the 20:09 mark.
CU picked up the pace on offense, pressing the DU goal. With just less than 25 minutes remaining, the Buffs caused a commotion in front of the net. With 2012 Big Sky Goalkeeper of the Year Natalie D’Adamio out of the net, a UNC defender scrambled from the right of the box to keep the ball alive, but tapped the ball into the goal zone.
The goal was the third own goal in as many games that CU has played at CIBER Field. Of the five own goals in CU’s program history, four have happened at CIBER Field. Last season, CU had two own goals in the Denver Invitational. The own goal was the only point in CU’s 4-1 defeat to Denver and helped CU to a 2-1 victory over Cincinnati just two days later. Previously, CU scored off own goals in an 8-1 victory against St. Mary’s College on CIBER Field in 2009 and in a 2-1 win over Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, N.C. at the Wake Forest/adidas Soccer Classic.
Intensity built as CU keeper and co-captain Annie Brunner came up with a big save off a Juliana Grover header in the 24th minute. In just over a one minute span, CU took three corner kicks, but couldn’t get anything near the net. Both teams fouled, culminating with a yellow card on Darcy Jerman in the 33rd minute. Less than a minute later, Jerman redeemed herself, hitting the ball up the right side to Brie Hooks, who got contact at the right corner of the box, dribbled it in closer and kicked a hard one into the lower left corner of the net.
Hooks called the assist a great set up, allowing her to get a touch and shoot. “I just wanted to go out there and prove myself in the first game, to show what I can do,” Hooks said. And prove herself she did.
The Buffs stayed tough on offense, with Madison Krauser shooting at the keeper, and Anne Stuller hitting one into the left post, but a lightning delay suspended the momentum, putting the game on pause for just under an hour with 9:21 remaining in the first half.
CU remained aggressive in the closing minutes of the half, with Carly Bolyard, Lizzy Herzl and Olivia Pappalardo all taking shots. Bolyard nearly netted one in the 41st minute, taking a near range shot that was saved by the right post.
Another lightning delay made for an extended halftime, but as Sanchez said, the Buffs came out well after, and began the second half unfazed.
In the 47th minute, Stuller was already attacking on both offense and defense, as she blocked the first of UNC’s two second-half shots.
Rain starting falling with 40 minutes remaining in the half, but it couldn’t cool down Stuller’s offensive fire. In just over a five minute span, Stuller took a short range header and a big slammer, but D’Adamio came up with the save both times.
After a lot of back-and-forth movement to begin the half, a Paxton header in the 66th minute helped spur the Buffs’ offense. In the 77th minute, Stuller was at it again, meeting the keeper at the edge of the box, but once again, D’Adamio was prepared for the save. Though the ball got loose, the Buffs weren’t able to keep possession.
Less than a minute later, Hooks grabbed the ball off a defensive deflection, striking from the left for her second goal of the night. She said after the game that for her second goal, she was working against a couple players, saw space and went for the shot.
With just 10 minutes remaining in the game, both teams were still on the attack. In the 81st minute, UNC’s McBride sent one right at Annie Brunner off a free kick. After a lot of ball movement by the Buffs, Jerman shot one from the right, but a defender at the net came in for the block, closing out the game.
“I think defensively we’re very good,” Sanchez said. “UNC’s got some players with a lot of pace. We didn’t give up a lot, and we created. I think we could have finished a little bit better, but having said that, we got a little bit of a fortunate goal in the first one. It usually evens out.”
Hooks says she hopes to take the momentum from the Buffs’ solid start throughout the season.
“It’s definitely a good way to start the season and get us on a good roll and hopefully carry us on the rest of the weekend,” Hooks said.
Stand Shoulder to Shoulder with head coach Danny Sanchez and the CU soccer team as they host Colorado College in the first Buffs athletic event of the year. In honor of the first home game of the season, we will be celebrating Student Appreciation Day, where there will be free Half Fast Subs and prizes for students that attend.
Make sure to sit in the Buff Brigade cheering section and help give CU soccer a real home field advantage. Located at the north end of Prentup Field, the Brigade will be loud and spirited as they cheer the Buffs to victory!
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Marlee Horn Graduate Assistant SID University of Colorado
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