No. 20 Buffs Take Down Aztecs

BOULDER – After three straight games away from home, the No. 20 Colorado Buffaloes opened up the home portion of their schedule on Sunday at Kittredge Field with a 17-12 win over San Diego State.

Senior Darby Kiernan led CU with five goals and junior Samantha Nemirov recorded a career-high four goals to help the Buffs improve to a 2-2 record. SDSU fell to 2-2 with the loss.

WHAT HAPPENED: The Buffs scored three straight goals in the first eight minutes of the game. Redshirt junior Blair Sisk recorded a pair, including the first of the game at 26:41. She also converted on a free-position attempt at 22:31. Kiernan also scored her first of the game in the first eight minutes (23:19).

The Aztecs got on the board at 22:10 and ended CU's 3-0 run with their first marker of the game. But the Buffs came back with a 7-0 run to increase the score to 10-1 with 9:44 left in the first half. SDSU rallied back to finish the half with three straight goals, cutting the Buffs' lead to six (10-4).

Kiernan got the Buffs on the board first in the second half before the Aztecs tallied a pair of goals. Freshman Sadie Grozier ended SDSU's streak with her fourth goal of the season at 25:01. SDSU was able to cut CU's lead to five, but the Buffs hung on for the 17-12 win.

KEY STATISTICS: Colorado led 20-10 in draw controls with Kiernan recording 10. The Buffs had a 41-26 lead in shots and led the ground ball battle 26-24. CU also led the battle in free-positions shots, converting on 4-of-6 attempts, while SDSU only made 3-of-9.

NOTABLE:

The Buffs have now won 11 straight games at Kittredge Field, dating back to the 2016 season.
Julia Lisella earned her first career start and first career win in the game.
For the third time in four games, Kiernan recorded at least 10 draw controls.

TEAM LEADERS:

Colorado

Points: 21

Goals: 17

Assists: 21

Draw Controls: 20

Ground Balls: 26

Saves: 9

San Diego State

Points: 16

Goals: 12

Assists: 4

Draw Controls: 11

Ground Balls: 24

Saves: 14

UP NEXT: Colorado will host Virginia Tech next Sunday, March 4 at 12 p.m. at Kittredge Field.

QUOTEABLE:
Head Coach Ann Elliott
Finally playing at home:
"Anytime we have a chance to be home is great for us and this stretch for three weekends in a row is great. It lets us really focus in on ourselves and take care of things that we need to take care of."

Overall performance:
"One bright side is we had some of our younger players stepping up by playing hard and making plays, which we need. We need to be successful as we continue to go. Outside of that, I'm not sure we got better from today prior to the week before. We have to get better every day and from game to game. That's on us and we have to go back and keep working harder."

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Team Stats

Darby Kiernan

Samantha Nemirov

Blair Sisk

Sadie Grozier

Players Mentioned

Sadie Grozier

Darby Kiernan

Julia Lisella

Samantha Nemirov

Blair Sisk

Players Mentioned

Sadie Grozier

Darby Kiernan

Julia Lisella

Samantha Nemirov

Blair Sisk