Posts tagged UW
CU soccer team needs overtime to beat U of Washington
Oct 14th
SEATTLE – After a slow start at the Husky Soccer Complex, senior Anne Stuller gave the University of Colorado soccer team the upper-hand over Washington, netting the game-winner in the sixth minute of overtime.
The Pac-12 Conference leader in shots and corner kicks, the Buffs have had to fight against tough defensive pressure in their first true road trip of the season. Though they entered the game averaging 9.31 first half shots, the Huskies limited the Buffs to just one shot in the opening 45 minutes, marking just the fourth time this season the Buffs have taken fewer than five shots in the first half.
Anne Stuller reacts after scoring a goal in overtime to beat Washington
“Washington is great defensively and they have a very good goalkeeper,” CU head coach Danny Sanchez said. “There just wasn’t a lot of chances to be had either way for us. I felt that defensively, we were really tight and we limited their opportunities. We knew that there wouldn’t be a lot of chances to be had, but fortunately for us, the one good chance we had, we took care of.”
With their first road victory of the season, Colorado improves to 11-3 overall, 3-2 Pac-12. The Buffs are now a perfect 2-0 in overtime matches in 2013. Despite taking only one shot in the first half, CU outshot UW 15-11, including a six to two differential on goal. Continuing to shine in the net, Annie Brunner has become just the third CU keeper to record at least 11 wins in a single season. The shutout was Brunner’s eighth of the season, topping her 2012 total of 7.1.
Previously undefeated in Pac-12 play, with wins over USC and Utah and a double-overtime tie against then No. 3 UCLA, Washington slips to 6-6-2, 2-1-2 Pac-12. Redshirt junior Kate Bennett led the Huskies with five shots, taking both of the team’s shots on goal.
“It was a hard fought Pac-12 match,” Sanchez said. “Washington’s on a great roll. They’re tough to score on. They hadn’t given up a goal in Pac-12 play, so we knew it’d take something special. Anne Stuller did something special to win it for us.”
The Buffs got an opportunity in the opening 15 minutes when Madison Krauser, who led the Buffs with six shots, got the ball deep in Washington territory. From the 18 yard line, defensive pressure forced her to make a move, but she couldn’t get enough power on the kick to take a shot. Washington was quick to respond, causing commotion near the Buffs’ net, but CU finally got a good clearance to send the ball back in the other direction.
It wasn’t until the 27th minute that the Huskies were able to take the first shot of the game. A cross found Bennett at the net, but her shot was blocked, and Brunner came out to meet it. Less than four minutes later, UW was back on the attack, but this time Bennett sent the ball wide from close range. The Huskies continued to press the net. Brooke Rice looked strong on the defensive side of the ball, blocking any looks at the net. Though UW got a corner kick, the shot went long and helped the Buffs take over on the offense.
CU got its best chance of the half in the 36th minute. From the middle of the box, Darcy Jerman crossed left to Krauser, who was stopped by her defender, setting up a corner kick. Alex Huynh got her head on the ball, but the Buffs’ sole shot of the half was blocked. The Buffs retained possession, but a CU foul finally allowed UW to get the ball.
In the final five minutes, Washington caused several close calls for the Buffs. Getting the ball from the right corner of the box, Jaclyn Softli got within 12 yards, but her header was blocked by a CU defender. Though the Buffs got back deep into UW territory, a final throw in got away from them, allowing the Huskies to rush to the Buffs’ net. Brunner came out of the net in anticipation, leaving an empty net for Softli. Softli slammed the ball just left of the post, keeping the game scoreless at the break.
After taking just one shot in the first 45 minutes, the Buffs opened the second half on an offensive stride, with Krauser taking two shots in the first nine minutes. The Buffs continued to press the net and dictate the tempo, getting another opportunity off back-to-back shots by Krauser and Stuller.
Washington couldn’t regroup on the offense until the 69th minute, with Bennett shooting at the keeper. Bennett was on it again at 70:20, this time getting blocked. Following a corner kick, the Huskies sent another shot wide. Unwilling to remain in a defensive fight, the Buffs attacked the UW net. Tori Cooper got to the net and shot from close range, striking at Megan Kufeld, who had come out of the net.
The Huskies responded with a great chance of their own in the 77th minute. Lindsay Elston got to the net, but Brunner punched the ball away, and the Huskies were unable to convert on the following corner kick.
The Buffs continued to dominate in the final 10 minutes of regulation. Bianca Jones sent a deep ball to the net, where several Buffs got touches, even forcing Kufeld out of the net for a moment, but couldn’t find a shot. Following a corner kick, Krauser took the ball behind the box, forcing a shot that got blocked. She found the rebound and hit the ball just high.
Though the Huskies would get another chance, forcing Brunner to grab another save, it was the Buffs who continued to shine offensively in the closing minutes, with Stuller and Jerman each taking two shots in the final five minutes of regulation.
CU didn’t slow down in just their second overtime match of the season, quickly taking over on the offense. In the first minute, Krauser got an open look, but her shot went just over the crossbar. The Huskies were able to respond with a shot of their own in the 95th minute, but their attack wouldn’t last long.
A Washington foul just outside the box helped set up the Buffs’ game-winner. From 22 yards out, Stuller booted a free kick to the near post to give the Buffs the 1-0 victory.
“She was from a bit of a wide angle, and she just had a great strike,” Sanchez said. “… We were starting to pressure and get the ball into deeper spots. I think the game-winning goal was a by-product of that.”
With eight goals this season, Stuller matches her total from last season, which ranks in the top eight for a single season at CU. Her 22 total points this season ties for the most by a CU senior.
The Buffs conclude their three game road trip in Berkeley, Calif. (the site of their first ever Pac-12 Conference win). CU takes on No. 8 California at 1:30 p.m. MT on Friday, Oct. 18 before returning to Prentup Field for their final two home games of the season.
“I told the team after the match, this is the Pac-12, and after the game on Friday, we had to bounce back,” Sanchez said. “Nobody’s feeling sorry for anybody and the games are going to be like this. We have to continue the momentum and play with confidence. They’re a top 10, top 15 team with one loss … We know the challenge of being on the road. Hopefully we’re a little more comfortable with it and we’ll come out and play.”
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Marlee Horn
Graduate Assistant SID
University of Colorado
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CU women’s volleyball has a HUGE win over No. 1 Huskies
Oct 5th
BOULDER — The University of Colorado volleyball team shocked the top-ranked Washington Huskies on Friday night by handing them their first loss of the 2013 season, winning 3-1 (25-17, 26-24, 15-25, 25-19) at the Coors Events Center.
“I don’t think it has hit me yet,” senior Kerra Schroeder said. “At the same time, I think that we finally played to our potential, and I don’t think that anyone in the Pac-12 is ready for it. I’m not even shocked that we played so well. It’s awesome that we finally did.”
Simpson had 18 kill shots
This was the Buffs second win over a ranked opponent in eight days as they defeated No. 11 UCLA in five sets on Sept. 27, also at the Coors Events Center. The last time CU defeated two ranked teams in such a short span was in 2005 when the Buffs beat Kansas State (3-2) on Oct. 12 and Texas A&M (3-2) on Oct. 16. KSU was ranked 20th and TAMU was 24th.
“I told the team in the huddle that I’m not surprised at the results,” coach Liz Kritza said. “We focused on playing well. Even though we have had some really good matches in this season already, this team and this group of coaches is different. We’re just not going to be satisfied until we can maximize everything that we have. Tonight was the best I have seen this team play this season, and I still think that there’s more for us to do. We’re definitely going to enjoy it and celebrate it; wins like this are very significant. Years of work go into something like this is. I couldn’t be more proud of these players and coaches and this complete team effort.”
This was just the second time in program history that CU has knocked off a No. 1 ranked team; the last time was Nov. 11, 2006 when the Buffs took down Nebraska in five sets. Coincidentally that was the Husker’s only loss of the season as NU went onto win the NCAA Championship.
“Everybody wants to beat the number one team on their home court; it has to be a little bit more than that,” Kritza said. “It has to be a true group that actually believes it and is willing to make sacrifices and willing to work. Especially for us, we are coming off of a tough match on Tuesday. It’s up and down, and it’s even more significant coming off of that tough slip.”
Austen had 11 kills.
CU improved to 10-3 on the season, 2-1 in the Pac-12 with the win; while UW is now 10-1 overall and 1-2 in the Pac-12.
Junior Taylor Simpson recorded a match-high 18 kills in the win and hit .302 with only five errors on 43 attacks. She also led the team with 20 digs for her sixth double-double of the year.
“This was the most exciting game I’ve ever played throughout my entire career so far,” Simpson said. “I can only imagine what’s next. We just beat the number one team, and I’m beyond excited.”
The Buffs recorded 56 kills in the four sets, 10 more than Washington (46) and out-hit the Huskies .282-.135. Nicole Edelman handed out 46 of CU’s 53 assists and added 12 digs, two kills and a pair of blocks.
Sophomore Alexis Austin added 11 kills for the Buffs and Schroeder hammered nine. Kelsey English and Nikki Lindow each added eight kills in the victory.
CU also did well in the back row, picking up almost everything that came its way. The Buffs had 68 digs, compared to UW’s 55. Cierra Simpson added 12 digs for the Buffs and Schroeder had 10 digs on top of Taylor Simpson’s 20 and Edelman’s 12 digs. The Buffs block also looked good with Lindow and Schroeder posted four block assists. They recorded 9.0 team blocks compared to UW’s 6.0 blocks.
“I am so proud of everyone on my team,” Schroeder said. “I feel like we had a lot of long rallies, and no one gave up. That shows a lot of heart.”
The Huskies were led by Krista Vansant’s 14 kills. Lianna Sybeldon was also in double-digits with 12 kills while hitting .440. She also recorded four block assists. Jenna Orlandini had a team-best 15 digs in the match.
The Buffs took a 10-5 lead to start the match, forcing UW to call its first timeout. Out of the break, the Huskies took three of the next four points but the Buffs regrouped and kept rolling, going up 19-13. Once again the Huskies needed a break, but they couldn’t slow down CU and the Buffs closed the set 25-17. CU hit .378 and held the Huskies to .088.
The second set was much closer and the Buffs had the lead through the first part. CU was up 15-14 at the media timeout when the Huskies took two straight points for their first lead of the night (16-15). The score would be tied nine more times in the set and it would also go extra points. CU had set point (24-23), but UW tied it back up with a kill. The Buffs decided it was time to end the set after that with a pair of kills from Austin (26-24).
UW took a 9-4 lead in the third set, causing the Buffs to use their first timeout early. CU tried to chip away at the Huskies lead, but weren’t able to keep pace with UW. The Huskies extended their lead to 19-3 and finished the set 25-15.
The fourth set was another close one before the Buffs were able to go up 15-11 and extended it to 19-14. The Huskies got back within two points at 19-17, but CU answered with three points to retake a five-point advantage (22-17). The Buffs remained poised and held on to win one of the biggest matches in CU history 25-19. They hit .229 in the in the set, but more importantly held UW to .033.
The Buffs will be back in action on Sunday at 12 p.m. against the Washington State Cougars at the Coors Events Center.
COLORADO BUFFALOES
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CU women’s b-ball 25 – 5, facing #4 Stanford tonight in Pac-12 semifinals
Mar 9th
Freshman Jamie Swan’s late game baskets iced the win
Story by B.G. Brooks, CUBuffs.com
Overcoming a first half of near and sometimes bad misses, fourth-seeded CU finally took control in the final 20 minutes and ousted fifth-seeded Washington 70-59 at KeyArena.
The No. 18 Buffs (25-5) earned a Saturday night date with top-seeded Stanford (29-2) in the Pac-12 semifinals. The No. 4-ranked Cardinal, which defeated the Buffs twice during regular-season play, advanced by disposing of Washington State 79-60 in Friday night’s first game.
Jamee Swan had 15 points and 10 rebounds against Washinton
No. 2 seed California (28-2) and No. 3 seed UCLA (24-6) play in Saturday night’s first semifinal game. The CU-Stanford tip is scheduled for 9:30 p.m. MST (Pac-12 Network).
“There’s only one way to look at a matchup with Stanford, and that’s as an opportunity,” said CU coach Linda Lappe. “We’re going to look at it that way.”
Stanford’s two wins against CU were by 17 points (57-40) in Boulder on the opening weekend of Pac-12 play, then by three points (59-56) at Stanford on January’s last weekend. The Buffs believed they had improved at least that much from the first to the second meeting, and they believe they’re even better now.
They’ll probably need a better start than they had Friday night, when they were forced to overcome a first half that saw them miss 13 of their first 16 field goal attempts and go to their locker room to ponder their 28.9 percent (13-for-45) shooting.
“We knew we had to settle down, quit missing easy shots and quit fouling,” said senior guard Chucky Jeffery, who scored 12 of her game-high 19 points in the second half. “Now we know how the floor feels, the jitters are gone and the first (game) is out of the way. Now it’s about quick memory loss and going on to the next one – and it’s a big one. We want to come out and play better Saturday.”
Lappe used 11 players against UW (20-11) and not only did all of them score, all but one of them collected at least two rebounds and all but two contributed at least one assist. In addition to her 19 points, Jeffery also had a game-best four assists, while freshman forward Jamee Swan scored a career-high 15 points and hauled in 10 of CU’s 58 rebounds – UW had 36 – in her 19 minutes of court time.
“I feel like I played the best I ever played,” said Swan, who also blocked three shots. “It was really nice to be out there and not be afraid and have my teammates behind me.”
All of them were. CU’s bench outscored UW’s 33-18. The Buffs had 25 offensive rebounds to the Huskies’ 13, outscored them 40-18 in the paint and won the second-chance point duel 20-9.
“I like how we crashed the offensive glass,” Lappe said. “We needed to get a lot of extra shots in this game and we did. We showed a lot of resolve in chasing down loose balls to get us extra shots.”
Lappe applauded Swan and freshman guard Kyleesha Weston, who contributed two points and six rebounds in 21 minutes. “I’m really proud of our players,” Lappe said. “I thought we stepped up big at certain times . . . it seemed like whoever we brought into the game, we never missed a beat. That allowed us to get some rest so we could make a push at the end.”
In their 68-61 win over the Huskies last month in Boulder, the Buffs limited the Pac-12’s No. 2 scorer, Jazmine Davis, to nine points. Friday night, Davis got 17 – two below her average. She hit two of UW’s seven three-pointers, which were two more than CU allowed in Boulder and two above Friday night’s goal. U-Dub leads the conference in three-pointers made (8.2 a game). The Huskies’ final two treys Friday night came in the last two minutes when they were trying to cut into a 10-point Buffs lead.
UW got as close as four (63-59) before Jeffery scored five consecutive points – a jumper and three of four free throws – and Swan sank two free throws with 13 seconds left to account for a 7-0 run to close out the game.
The Buffs were up 29-26 at the half, but it took them almost 18 minutes to get their first lead. Blame that on shooting that was somewhere south of frigid. UW led by as many as six points (14-8) before the Buffs finally began finding their range – if they ever did.
Lappe said her team was “really excited to play. I think anytime that’s the case you miss some easy shots . . . but I like how we stayed with it.”
After a Jeffery three-pointer – her team’s only trey of the first half – tied the score at 23-23, she hit a pull-up jumper from the free throw line following a UW turnover to give CU its first lead, 25-23, with 2:41 before intermission.
The final 20 minutes would belong to whoever wanted them, and based on the first 21/2 it appeared that was CU. After scoring the first eight points the Buffs surged to a 37-26 lead and were threatening to rip this one open.
It didn’t happen. Talia Walton’s trey started an 8-0 UW run and Davis’ traditional three-point finished it, pulling the Huskies back to within three (37-34) with 16:09 remaining.
CU went back ahead by as many as seven points on an Ashley Wilson layup and maintained at least a four-point lead until a pair of free throws by Kristi Kingma pulled UW to 45-43 with 10:29 to play.
The Huskies could get no closer. Pulling ahead twice by 10 on a pair of layups by Swan in the final two minutes, the Buffs looked like they could begin making semifinal plans for Saturday.
But three-pointers by Heather Corral and Walton, who finished with 13, closed UW’s deficit to 63-59 with less than a minute left. Jeffery answered with a layup and three of four free throws, and when Swan sank a pair with 13 seconds remaining, those semifinal plans to face Stanford were complete.
“We’ll have to make sure we’re ready and playing really well together,” Lappe said. “They’re the giants of the Pac-12 and we’ve got a shot at them.”
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