CU women improve record to 2-1-1
After having a tough opening weekend to their season, the CU women’s soccer team bounced back by beating the San Francisco Dons 4-1 at Prentup Field on Sunday.
“Our first two weekends were pretty intense, with Florida followed by DU, and then going down to Texas on Friday, and having to come home and get up to play San Francisco,” Colorado head coach Bill Hempen said after the game.
San Francisco had the easier travel schedule, including playing in Greeley on Friday against UNC, while the Buffs were down in Texas opening up Big-12 play against Texas Tech. However, traveling didn’t seem to be an issue for Hempen’s squad, with the Buffaloes starting off strong and getting a lot of good chances in the first couple of minutes of play.
“Our first four games now, we opened all four games that strong,” Hempen said. “We just didn’t score the goals like we did today, and that part of our game is going pretty well for us right now.”
The Buffs would get the first goal in the 23rd minute when senior Nikki Keller deflected the ball off of a defender and in the back of the net to give Colorado the early 1-0 lead.
“It was kind of weird,” Keller said. “It was just good movement from the team, and I just got a great ball through from Alex (Cousins), and it just bounced off their defender.”
Colorado got another goal in the first half when senior Amber Bettenhausen received a well-placed cross pass from Cousins to extend the Buffaloes’ lead to two.
It wasn’t just on offense that the Buffs dominated, but on defense as well, holding the Dons to only one shot the entire period. The Buffs didn’t put on the brakes in the second half either, scoring two goals in the first 11 minutes.
Junior Nikki Marshall got her second goal of the season in the 47th minute, receiving a great pass from Kate Russell and one-timing it past the San Francisco goalkeeper.
Just nine minutes later, senior Gianna DeSaverio found an opening in front of the net and nailed the ball past goalkeeper Kelly Pohle to put an exclamation point on the Buffs’ win. Marshall added an assist on DeSaverio’s goal only minutes after scoring her own.
“I didn’t do too much,” Marshall said. “I ran on the back post and (Kate) Russell crossed it across, and I was right on the back post and I just finished.”
San Francisco took away the Buffs’ hope for a shutout when Kristina Hall found some daylight in the upper right corner of the net in the 67th minute give the Dons their only goal.
It seemed like the Buffs were finally running on all cylinders with the squad finishing their passes and getting a lot more chances than they had in their first three contests.
“We really clicked today, and I think we just need to find that chemistry every game,” Marshall said.
So what does this team still need to do to become Big-12 champions? Keller said the team needs to keep on finishing and using their talented young players.
“In past years, we haven’t used the young players that we have, and we have two awesome outside midfielders and a great defender that are helping us through this year,” Keller said.
With the win, Colorado’s record improves to 2-1-1, while San Francisco gets their first loss of the season, moving their record to 2-1-0. But after two slow starts, it seems that CU is finally getting into a rhythm.
“Right now we’re starting to get the knack here and there,” Hempen said. “We’re going to give them an extra day off next week, so I think they’ll be happy with that.”
Contact CU Independent staff writer Ron Knabenbauer at ronald.knabenbauer@colorado.edu.
