Soccer Ties Texas, Falls in Shootout

Wednesday, November 7

San Antonio, Texas

4:30 PM

Colorado

9-7-4

Texas (Quarterfinal)

13-3-4

OT 1

OT 2

Colorado

Texas

Photo by: CUBuffs.com

November 07, 2007 | Soccer

Box Score

By: Aaron Lopez, Denver Nuggets

SAN ANTONIO, Texas - The University of Colorado women's soccer team battled the University of Texas for the second straight game and played to a 0-0 tie in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament. Texas advanced to the semifinals on penalty kicks.

Colorado (9-7-3) and Texas (14-3-3) were seeded No. 7 and No. 2 in the tournament, respectively. The teams met on Friday, Nov. 2 in both teams' final regular season contest. Texas won that meeting 4-1 in Austin, but today proved to be a much different matchup.

"It was disappointing," said head coach Bill Hempen. "I felt like we played very well. We certainly had our chances and they had their chances and you have to keep it in your mind that we technically didn't lose the game."

Colorado nearly got on the board 30 minutes into the match when junior midfielder Alex cousins sent a through ball on to freshman Michaela DeJesus who took a couple touches and shot the ball into a sliding Texas goalkeeper, Dianna Pfenniger, who managed to clear the ball wide.

The Buffaloes and Longhorns played to a scoreless first half, with Colorado leading the statistics with five shots to Texas' three. DeJesus led the Buffs with three shots, two of which came on goal. Sophomore goalkeeper Kara Linder pulled in one save for the Buffaloes, while Pfenniger came away with three.

The Buffaloes came out with strong intensity and dominated the action on UT's side of the field for a majority of the second half.

After six minutes of second half play, Cousins took shot at the top of the 18 that was denied by the crossbar and bounced back into play.

Colorado's momentum continued as junior Gianna DeSaverio sent ball from out wide that went untouched into UT box and junior Amber Bettenhausen one-timed a shot toward the goal but Pfenniger was there to record the save.

Texas had a chance to take the lead in the 68th minute when Kelsey Carpenter exploded through the Colorado defense and had a one-on-one opportunity with Linder but Carpenter sent a low ball on the ground that went just left of the goal.

After 90 scoreless minutes, the game was sent into overtime. This marks the third straight game that has been pushed into overtime today in the tournament, which is a first in the tournament 12 year history.

Colorado wrapped up regulation play outshooting the Longhorns 18-15, and the Buffs managed 10 shots on goal, compared to UT's two.

Both teams had close opportunities to end the game in extra time, with Colorado striking first. Cousins sent a floating ball toward the back post of the goal to freshman Mel Hicks, who tried to volley it in but Pfenniger deflected it away with her body.

Texas tried to break though as Carpenter raced down left sideline toward goal and went to wind up for a shot but Buffalo U-20 National Team defender Nikki Marshall sprinted behind Carpenter and executed a perfect tackle, taking the ball away from Carpenter and forcing it out of bounds.

The game was eventually forced into a shootout, with Texas stepping up to shoot first. UT's Kasey Moore sent her shot toward the lower left side of the goal, but CU goalkeeper Kara Linder fully extended toward the shot and came up with an amazing save to set the tone for the Buffaloes.

"When Kara made that first save, I thought 'wow,'" said Hempen. "That was an unbelievable save."

Colorado's Cousins and Texas' Courtney Gaines both converted their penalty kicks, putting the Buffs up 2-1 after the first four kicks. Buff midfielder Nikki Keller's shot was saved to even the playing field, and she was followed by Longhorn Niki Arlitt who gave UT the 3-2 lead with her conversion. Junior Michelle Wenino buried her PK, as did Texas' Jill Gilbeau. Freshman Michaela DeJesus stepped up to take the fifth kick for the Buffaloes and her shot was in the air on the left side of the goal, but Pfenniger was able to get to the ball and deny the goal. The Longhorns came away with the victory after their goalkeeper, Pfenniger, made the final shot to win the shootout 4-2.

The Buffaloes finished the game with 11 shots on goal, good for their second highest single-game total this season. With the shutout tie, Colorado picked up its eighth shutout of the year, and Linder recorded her third shutout of the season. Tonight's tie also marked the fourth straight overtime game for CU in the Big 12 Tournament, with three of them ending in penalty kicks.

Colorado will now wait to see if they will have a chance to go onto the NCAA Tournament for the sixth straight season.

"We're going to proceed," said Hempen. "We're not going to shut down yet and we're going to hope for the best. If the committee was here watching tonight's game they would certainly know that we're a quality team, so we'll just have to see what happens."