Photo by: Mike Greening
Coming Off ACL Injury, Zuniga Returns To Lead Buffs To 2-1 Spring Win
April 09, 2018 | Soccer
BOULDER – It's been a long time coming for Stephanie Zuniga, who missed the entire 2017 soccer season with a torn ACL she suffered just over a year ago. On Saturday, she assisted on both of CU's goals in a 2-1 win over Northern Colorado in the team's second of six spring exhibition games, her first start of the spring.
Two years ago in 2016 as a sophomore, Zuniga was one of CU's most productive players off the bench, tying Danica Evans, who currently plays for the Orlando Pride, for the team lead with six assists.
"The year before, she was a great spark for us off of the bench—tied with our team assists lead with Danica Evans," head coach Danny Sanchez said. "She plays quality final balls. She sees the field. She has a great tactical sense of what we are trying to do. We knew this spring after missing a year, it would take a little time for her to get back into it. I think she showed really well in training this week—that is why she started [Sunday]."
Sanchez envisioned Zuniga's role continuing to grow into her 2017 junior season, but she tore her right ACL on Feb. 24 last year, sitting her on the sidelines for the whole season.
She has returned to action this spring and has played in both spring games so far, showing zero lingering effects. Her recovery has been relatively "easy" because she knew what to expect—Zuniga tore her left ACL high school and had already been through rehab with that.
"It was my second [knee surgery] so I kind of knew what to expect in terms of the recovery and having a positive outlook, understanding that it's a process and that it's going to take some time to get back," Zuniga said. "Coming back after winter break, I got the go ahead from Dr. [Eric] McCarty. It's been amazing, it feels so good to be back out there with the team. When you're hurt, you don't travel with the team, stuff like that. It's just been so much fun being with them and finding my groove, building my confidence and remaining positive throughout the process. I've just been having so much fun in practice, finding my teammates, creating opportunities and taking shots, whatever I can to do help the team out."
Sitting out a full season has given Zuniga a new perspective on soccer. She also believes having gone through ACL rehab twice that she can be of assistance to others who are going through it for the first time.
"I feel like a lot of people take playing for granted, but you don't know how much it takes from you, just not being able to run for a month or two, not being able to touch the ball for three months," Zuniga. "It teaches you a lot. It's made me grateful to continue to play, and to not have to go through that [again]. It's a learning process, you learn a lot being out, especially with an ACL, you just have to remain positive.
"You go through it and can help others who may go through it in the future, you want to be that person. It sucks that it had to happen to me, but in the future you're able to help those going through it."
Now that she is healthy and on the field again, Zuniga and her teammates can look ahead to the 2018 season, one with high expectations as the Buffs return nine starters from a team that has made back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances. In addition to bringing back nine starters—including the team's top four scorers—CU gets back Zuniga, Jorian Baucom and Libby Geraghty, who all sat out with injuries in 2017.
Zuniga says her biggest thing to work on between now and August is her fitness level, which dropped as a result of the time on the sidelines with her injury.
"My biggest thing is my fitness," Zuniga said. "I need to work on that this offseason, as well as just getting into the weight room, getting stronger, getting tougher on the ball, and with that hopefully everything will fall into place...Now that I'm 100 percent cleared, it's on me to find the time to put in that extra work."
While Sanchez was originally looking for Zuniga's role to grow a year ago, now he's looking for that in 2018, when she will be a redshirt junior. Her versatility and ability with her left (natural) foot could make her an asset on each level of the field.
"I think she puts herself in good position because she can play multiple positions," Sanchez said. "She can play wide in the midfield. She can play wide up top. She can play as an attacking midfielder. She can play left side or right side. She is a versatile-enough player that if we switch from two up top or three up top, she can seamlessly do that which is good to have that flexibility. She just needs to continue to work for when she gets the opportunity to perform."
With left back Joss Orejel being one of the team's two graduates, Sanchez envisions Zuniga possibly stepping into Orejel's role on set pieces.
"[I can see her helping] on set pieces like the corner kick you saw at the end of [Sunday's game]," Sanchez said. "Joss served great balls and Stephanie has that same quality. When push comes to shove, a lot of games are won just like [Sunday] on set pieces. She serves a quality ball for sure."
SUNDAY'S RECAP:
On Sunday at Kittredge Field, Colorado was hosting 2017 Colorado Cup champion Northern Colorado, which reached the Big Sky Conference championship game and finished 13-7-2 overall, just missing the NCAA Tournament. The Bears are set to return four of their top five scorers from last season, including leading scorer Mariel Gutierrez. It was a solid spring test for the Buffs, who will be looking for revenge in the fall as they have won five of the seven Colorado Cups in history after being edged by UNC last year.
CU dominated play throughout the entire first half, scoring in the 24th minute after Zuniga set up Kelsey Aaknes ahead of the defense for a 1v1 with the goalkeeper.
The Buffs had numerous chances to add to the lead before halftime as Megan Massey was active in an attacking midfield position, but the Buffs could not get one into the net. Massey herself appeared to score late in the half after a setup from Sarah Kinzner, but Massey was offsides on the play to negate the goal.
The second half was more even between the two sides and the Bears leveled the score at 1-1 in the 69th minute. CU pressed late in the game with several corner kicks, and in the 85th minute, Zuniga's corner found Marty Puketapu on the far post, who deflected the ball in for the game-winner.
"I thought the first 45 minutes we played really well," Sanchez said. "Obviously, Kelsey scored a very nice goal. There was a nice assist by Stephanie. We were probably unfortunate not to get a couple more [goals]. Second half, I thought the game started to get a little bit stretched—credit to Northern Colorado. We scored a good goal, but they were putting some pressure on us before that. I thought after they got the equalizer, we turned up the pressure a little bit. I think it was well-deserved to get a goal at the end.
Every player that dressed played a relatively even number of minutes on Sunday.
"It was a typical spring game, "Sanchez said. "Everybody played a lot of minutes. We moved people around, we played different formations. At the end of the day, like I told the team, whenever we play a game, we want to win. UNC is a good team. It was a good result for us on a Sunday afternoon and we are looking forward to next weekend."
"You can never be upset with a win," Zuniga said. "When things start to slow down, I think it's important to keep that tempo up and continue to find that goal. That's what we did, we continued to fight to find that final goal. It was just a matter of keeping the team up, even after we got scored on, to be the voice and to keep the energy going."
UP NEXT:
CU will host a doubleheader at Prentup Field on Saturday. The Buffs will face Wyoming at noon, followed by FC Boulder WUPSL at 3 p.m.
Northern Colorado 0 1 - 1
Colorado 1 1 - 2
CU Goals: Aaknes 24' (Zuniga), Northern Colorado 69', Puketapu 85' (Zuniga)
CU Starters: Tompkins (GK), Weiner, Aaknes, Cardenas, Greening, Goodwin, Kinzner, Baucom, Puketapu, Zuniga, Joella
CU Reserves: Watson (GK), Barton, Massey, Shymka, Vidger, Phillips, Dalton
Two years ago in 2016 as a sophomore, Zuniga was one of CU's most productive players off the bench, tying Danica Evans, who currently plays for the Orlando Pride, for the team lead with six assists.
"The year before, she was a great spark for us off of the bench—tied with our team assists lead with Danica Evans," head coach Danny Sanchez said. "She plays quality final balls. She sees the field. She has a great tactical sense of what we are trying to do. We knew this spring after missing a year, it would take a little time for her to get back into it. I think she showed really well in training this week—that is why she started [Sunday]."
Sanchez envisioned Zuniga's role continuing to grow into her 2017 junior season, but she tore her right ACL on Feb. 24 last year, sitting her on the sidelines for the whole season.
She has returned to action this spring and has played in both spring games so far, showing zero lingering effects. Her recovery has been relatively "easy" because she knew what to expect—Zuniga tore her left ACL high school and had already been through rehab with that.
"It was my second [knee surgery] so I kind of knew what to expect in terms of the recovery and having a positive outlook, understanding that it's a process and that it's going to take some time to get back," Zuniga said. "Coming back after winter break, I got the go ahead from Dr. [Eric] McCarty. It's been amazing, it feels so good to be back out there with the team. When you're hurt, you don't travel with the team, stuff like that. It's just been so much fun being with them and finding my groove, building my confidence and remaining positive throughout the process. I've just been having so much fun in practice, finding my teammates, creating opportunities and taking shots, whatever I can to do help the team out."
Sitting out a full season has given Zuniga a new perspective on soccer. She also believes having gone through ACL rehab twice that she can be of assistance to others who are going through it for the first time.
"I feel like a lot of people take playing for granted, but you don't know how much it takes from you, just not being able to run for a month or two, not being able to touch the ball for three months," Zuniga. "It teaches you a lot. It's made me grateful to continue to play, and to not have to go through that [again]. It's a learning process, you learn a lot being out, especially with an ACL, you just have to remain positive.
"You go through it and can help others who may go through it in the future, you want to be that person. It sucks that it had to happen to me, but in the future you're able to help those going through it."
Now that she is healthy and on the field again, Zuniga and her teammates can look ahead to the 2018 season, one with high expectations as the Buffs return nine starters from a team that has made back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances. In addition to bringing back nine starters—including the team's top four scorers—CU gets back Zuniga, Jorian Baucom and Libby Geraghty, who all sat out with injuries in 2017.
Zuniga says her biggest thing to work on between now and August is her fitness level, which dropped as a result of the time on the sidelines with her injury.
"My biggest thing is my fitness," Zuniga said. "I need to work on that this offseason, as well as just getting into the weight room, getting stronger, getting tougher on the ball, and with that hopefully everything will fall into place...Now that I'm 100 percent cleared, it's on me to find the time to put in that extra work."
While Sanchez was originally looking for Zuniga's role to grow a year ago, now he's looking for that in 2018, when she will be a redshirt junior. Her versatility and ability with her left (natural) foot could make her an asset on each level of the field.
"I think she puts herself in good position because she can play multiple positions," Sanchez said. "She can play wide in the midfield. She can play wide up top. She can play as an attacking midfielder. She can play left side or right side. She is a versatile-enough player that if we switch from two up top or three up top, she can seamlessly do that which is good to have that flexibility. She just needs to continue to work for when she gets the opportunity to perform."
With left back Joss Orejel being one of the team's two graduates, Sanchez envisions Zuniga possibly stepping into Orejel's role on set pieces.
"[I can see her helping] on set pieces like the corner kick you saw at the end of [Sunday's game]," Sanchez said. "Joss served great balls and Stephanie has that same quality. When push comes to shove, a lot of games are won just like [Sunday] on set pieces. She serves a quality ball for sure."
SUNDAY'S RECAP:
On Sunday at Kittredge Field, Colorado was hosting 2017 Colorado Cup champion Northern Colorado, which reached the Big Sky Conference championship game and finished 13-7-2 overall, just missing the NCAA Tournament. The Bears are set to return four of their top five scorers from last season, including leading scorer Mariel Gutierrez. It was a solid spring test for the Buffs, who will be looking for revenge in the fall as they have won five of the seven Colorado Cups in history after being edged by UNC last year.
CU dominated play throughout the entire first half, scoring in the 24th minute after Zuniga set up Kelsey Aaknes ahead of the defense for a 1v1 with the goalkeeper.
The Buffs had numerous chances to add to the lead before halftime as Megan Massey was active in an attacking midfield position, but the Buffs could not get one into the net. Massey herself appeared to score late in the half after a setup from Sarah Kinzner, but Massey was offsides on the play to negate the goal.
The second half was more even between the two sides and the Bears leveled the score at 1-1 in the 69th minute. CU pressed late in the game with several corner kicks, and in the 85th minute, Zuniga's corner found Marty Puketapu on the far post, who deflected the ball in for the game-winner.
"I thought the first 45 minutes we played really well," Sanchez said. "Obviously, Kelsey scored a very nice goal. There was a nice assist by Stephanie. We were probably unfortunate not to get a couple more [goals]. Second half, I thought the game started to get a little bit stretched—credit to Northern Colorado. We scored a good goal, but they were putting some pressure on us before that. I thought after they got the equalizer, we turned up the pressure a little bit. I think it was well-deserved to get a goal at the end.
Every player that dressed played a relatively even number of minutes on Sunday.
"It was a typical spring game, "Sanchez said. "Everybody played a lot of minutes. We moved people around, we played different formations. At the end of the day, like I told the team, whenever we play a game, we want to win. UNC is a good team. It was a good result for us on a Sunday afternoon and we are looking forward to next weekend."
"You can never be upset with a win," Zuniga said. "When things start to slow down, I think it's important to keep that tempo up and continue to find that goal. That's what we did, we continued to fight to find that final goal. It was just a matter of keeping the team up, even after we got scored on, to be the voice and to keep the energy going."
UP NEXT:
CU will host a doubleheader at Prentup Field on Saturday. The Buffs will face Wyoming at noon, followed by FC Boulder WUPSL at 3 p.m.
Northern Colorado 0 1 - 1
Colorado 1 1 - 2
CU Goals: Aaknes 24' (Zuniga), Northern Colorado 69', Puketapu 85' (Zuniga)
CU Starters: Tompkins (GK), Weiner, Aaknes, Cardenas, Greening, Goodwin, Kinzner, Baucom, Puketapu, Zuniga, Joella
CU Reserves: Watson (GK), Barton, Massey, Shymka, Vidger, Phillips, Dalton
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