SOCCER ATOP OF BIG 12 WITH 2-0 WIN AT BAYLOR

Sunday, October 5

Waco, Texas

12:00 p.m.

Colorado

10-1-0, 4-0-0Big 12

Baylor

6-6-0, 1-3-0Big 12

Colorado

Baylor

Photo by: CUBuffs.com

October 05, 2003 | Soccer

Box Score

By: CUBuffs.com

WACO, Texas - Senior Orly Ripmaster scored on the first shot of the game and on CU's first shot of the second half, as the Buffs upended a motivated Baylor team 2-0 here Sunday for a league-leading fourth conference win. It is CU's first win against a Baylor team since the 1997 season and first-ever in Waco and puts the Buffs atop of the Big 12 standings for the first time in the program's history.

Baylor was coming off an upset win Friday night against nationally ranked Nebraska, setting the stage for a possible Bears sweep of ranked programs, but the Buffs held off a second half surge to improve to 10-1 overall, 4-0 in Big 12 play while Baylor falls to 6-6/1-3.

'We've been on the same side of the street when we were coming off an emotional win at Denver, then having to come back and win our next game, so I think our kids understood what they (Baylor) had done and what we had to do to beat them,' said head coach Bill Hempen.

Ripmaster, a Harvard transfer and Boulder native, put the Buffs up 1-0 early, scoring on the first shot of the game when a muffed kick by Baylor keeper Monica Housden from a Baylor defender played right into Ripmaster's feet from at the 18 for her first long-awaited score of the season. Eight of her previous eight season shots on goal had been denied, including one that hit the crossbar against Missouri, one that had grazed the goal line against Seton Hall and a header from point blank range that was picked off against San Jose State.

'I couldn't throw my hands up in the air to celebrate because I've been having shoulder problems, but I was pretty happy for sure,' said Ripmaster.

Controlling the pitch in the first half, the Buffs had five more shots by four different players, three on goal that were denied by Housden before CU went into the halftime break with all but one shot (6-1) in the game, and the only score (1-0). The also went in with the game's first caution, on sophomore defender Ashlie Mihalcin who was cautioned in the 37th minute when she went for a hard challenge with a Baylor player getting the brunt of the tackle.

Following a pair of shots by Baylor's Tiffany Boshers in the 50th minute and the Bears' April Robertson in the 54th, Ripmaster made it a 2-0 contest when she headed a Fran Munnelly corner kick from the back post past Housden, in the 60th minute. It was the third two-goal game for a Buff in as many games as freshman Katie Griffin netted two against Iowa State and Munnelly two at Texas Tech Friday night.

'Orly had two opportunistic goals that presented themselves to her and she was able to close on both,' said Hempen.

Munnelly had an opportunity to make it a 3-0 contest when the Buffs were awarded their first penalty kick of the season, as a result of Kathryn Grandinetti's jersey being pulled by a Baylor defender, halting Grandinetti's path to the ball in the box, in the 71st minute. Munnelly's shot landed just where Housden was for the save. It was just CU's second shot of the closing half, as the tables had turned on the Buffs with Baylor taking 10 chances to CU's 3 in the final stanza.

'It was absolute chaos. They were playing on pure emotion and we played right into it,' Hempen said.

Colorado returns to Boulder for its final non-conference game of the season when the Buffs host Minnesota, in the return trip of a home-and-home series, this Friday, Oct. 10 in a 4 p.m. start at north Boulder's Pleasant View Soccer Complex. They turnaround and board a plane Saturday and play at Oklahoma Sunday in Norman.

'We're not quite halfway through the conference season, but we much prefer to be where we are as to where we've been,' concluded Hempen.