The road to the Sweet Sixteen goes through DU
It looked bleak early on for the Buffs at Prentup Field on Friday, but senior Katie Griffin scored two goals in less than two minutes in the second half to spoil Colorado College’s upset bid and send the Buffs to the second round of the NCAA tournament with a 2-1 victory.
“Credit Colorado College for sticking with their game plan,” head coach Bill Hempen said after the game. “But I’m really proud of the kids for coming back from that deficit at halftime. We’ve got a very stubborn, very driven team.”
The fourth-seeded Buffs came out flat against a hungry CC team, wasting numerous opportunities early. CU had 11 first-half shots, but came away with nothing to show for it. The Tigers capitalized on the Buffs’ inefficiency midway through the first half when junior Jessica Beinlich lofted a perfect corner kick to the middle of the box, where sophomore Molly Uniyeshi took advantage and headed it into the back of the net to give the Tigers a 1-0 advantage. The goal came on CC’s first and only shot of the half and took the electricity out of the CU players and the 1,500-plus crowd.
“We were a little bummed [at halftime] because we came out sluggish, but we knew that we didn’t want to end it here,” Griffin said. “We thought that we were the better team, so we knew we had to pick it up.”
The Buffs did come out fighting in the second half, but showed the same inability to convert scoring chances into goals until Griffin stepped up in the 59th minute. Junior Allison Kidd, who rebounded from a rough first half to finish strongly, placed a perfect pass to Griffin at the 15-yard line, who buried the ball in the lower left corner of the net to knot the game at one.
The goal brought the crowd back into the game and shifted the momentum to the side of CU, who capitalized 90 seconds later on Griffin’s second goal of the game. Kidd again set up the goal by placing a pass to Griffin at the 35-yard line. Despite being so far out, the trigger-happy Griffin decided to go for it, and snuck a perfect shot under the crossbar and through the hands of the leaping CC goalie to put the Buffs on top for good.
“I’m going, ‘Don’t shoot, don’t shoot! Oh, great shot!'” said Hempen of the goal. “She hit it right, and she did a great job.”
“When we’re down, I start shooting a lot more,” said Griffin. “If anything, that shot was a half-chance, but I started taking chances because I wanted to score. Some go in and some don’t, and two went in today.”
The Buffs shut down the Tigers for the rest of the match to preserve the one-goal advantage. CC had trouble mustering an offensive attack, managing only five shots in the second half to give it a total of six for the day.
“We didn’t play the best of our capabilities,” CC head coach Geoff Bennett said after the game. “But I think that has a lot to do with Colorado and their athletic ability and how quickly they closed us down.”
The victory for the Buffs means they will advance to second round of the tournament for the third year in a row, taking on the University of Denver Pioneers, who beat the University of Kentucky 2-0 on Friday at Prentup Field. The Buffs took the only meeting between the two teams earlier in the season with a 1-0 victory earlier, but are expecting an intense match against a surging Pioneers team on Sunday.
“We’re going to have to play a whole lot better to beat that team, because they are on fire right now,” Hempen said. “It’s going to take everything the Buffs have to match up with what the Pioneers are going to bring.”
Griffin echoed her coach’s sentiment, but was excited for the prospect of a rematch with the in-state rivals.
“If we had to pick between DU and Kentucky, I’d say DU just because we have played them so many times and we know their style and know what to expect. We know how we need to prepare for them.”
The CU-Denver game will take place at Prentup Field on Sunday at noon. The winner will go to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time in either school’s history.
