Colorado Soccer Beats Wyoming 2-0

Sunday, October 1

Boulder, Colo.

1 p.m.

Colorado

7-2-2

Wyoming

5-5-1

Wyoming

Colorado

Photo by: Chip Bromfield, ProMotion Ltd.

October 01, 2006 | Soccer

Box Score

By: Aaron Lopez, Denver Nuggets

BOULDER - The No. 21 University of Colorado women's soccer team used a deep bench and big crowd to top the University of Wyoming by a score of 2-0 here Sunday afternoon at Prentup Field.

Two reserves scored for the Buffs in the second half in front of 1,265 fans to get CU its seventh win of the season and 98th in program history.

"It wasn't pretty, but no one will care because it's a win," said CU head coach Bill Hempen. "The game on Friday (a 1-1 tie at Nebraska) was a track meet with 25 and 27 shots and that's a lot of back and forth. We just need to get our legs back."

For the third straight Buffalo game, neither team was able to get on the board in the first half. Colorado (7-2-2, 1-1-1 Big 12) managed 15 shots in the first half, but just two of those were on goal. Wyoming (5-5-1) got five shots in the first half, forcing CU starting goalkeeper Kirstin Radlinski into a single save.

Colorado came into the second half with a more veteran lineup, starting Alex Cousins, Brittany Dornseif and Katie Griffin, each of whom came off the bench to start the game. That led to more offensive chances, and it was a foul committed on Cousins that earned the Buffaloes the set piece that led to the first goal.

Senior defender Laura Munnelly stepped up to take the free kick from the left side of the field, approximately 25 yards out from the goal. She sent a driven bending ball to the far post which found freshman Jess Quador, who headed it home for her second career goal at the 74:01 mark of the match.

"It felt good to get a score finally," said Quador. "Laura plays absolutely perfect service pretty much every time she takes a free kick. She hit it just hard enough and just high enough to get through the goal box and I was in the right place at the right time. She makes it easy for us to score when she plays a ball like that."

The Buffs weren't done with the scoresheet as Nikki Keller would net her second goal of the season on some nifty ball movement in the box. She combined with Griffin on four straight back-and-forth touches before Griffin slotted a short ball through inside the left side of the penalty area to an open Keller, who easily pounded it home into the bottom left of the goal at 84:05.

"We were looking to make combinations in the final third of the field, Katie had great vision and found me on a through ball," said Keller. "It was really compact in the box; there were a lot of players in there so it was hard to play in-and-out of all of them. At the end we started to stretch them out and so it worked out."

"We talked at halftime that we weren't hitting the pass over the top so we withdrew Alex to come back and get the ball so we could play it through," said Hempen. "The second goal was exactly what we should have been doing all game."

Wyoming's Ashley Sheppard finished with five saves on 26 Colorado shots, allowing two goals. Wyoming managed just two shots in the second half thanks to the Buffalo defense, neither of which challenged CU goalkeeper Kara Linder, who came on at halftime.

"Our defense is really strong back there they make it really difficult for the other team to setup an offense," said Quador. "They are so quick back there that it's hard to get around them."

Hempen went with a young lineup to start the match, starting six freshmen, three of whom got their first career starts. Caitlin Choun, Ally Goodman and Libby Doyne all started to give some of CU's usual starters some extra rest following the double overtime match at Nebraska. For the second straight game Doyne played over half of the match.

Colorado now has 98 overall wins as a program, and will have the opportunity to get to 100 next weekend at home as they host two challenging Big 12 matches. No. 8 Texas A&M, the defending Big 12 regular season and tournament champion, comes to town on Friday, Oct. 6 at 4 p.m. at Prentup Field. The Buffs will then face No. 11 Texas on Sunday, Oct. 8 at 1 p.m. at Prentup. Admission and parking at all Colorado women's soccer regular season home matches is free of charge.