Colorado women’s soccer advance to second round of NCAA Tournament

The Colorado Buffaloes women’s soccer team has enjoyed quite the success this season. That success continued today with a 3-1 victory over Oklahoma State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Two own goals from OSU and a 90th minute goal from senior forward Danica Evans gave the Buffs a decisive victory. The goal was Evans’ 11th of the season, which ties her with freshman phenom Taylor Kornieck for the team lead.

The Buffs were 14-5-1 in the regular season and 8-2-1 in the Pac-12. In their non-conference schedule, they owned the state of Colorado, as they defeated Air Force, Colorado College, Colorado State and, in the Colorado Cup, Denver.

In conference play, Danny Sanchez’s squad eight wins included key victories over No. 10 California (in Berkeley!) and No. 9 UCLA. Their only two losses were at No. 3 Stanford (they’re now No. 1) and at home against No. 4 USC. That one tie was the season finale against No. 23 Utah. If you hadn’t picked up on it yet, the Pac-12 is insanely good at women’s soccer; they’re as good as a conference at soccer as people think the SEC is at football. Seriously, it’s been nearly a month since CU played a team that wasn’t ranked.

By performing as well as they did in such a terrific conference — mostly by the strength of their stingy defense that allows less than a goal per game — the Buffs are currently No. 20 in the country and were rewarded with an 8-seed in the NCAA Tournament. After their victory over Oklahoma State, they will take on top-seeded South Carolina next weekend. Hopefully this great season see the Buffs pull off the upset.