Soccer Falls 1-0 to TTU in Conference Opener

Friday, September 28

Boulder, Colo.

4 p.m.

Colorado

4-3-3, 0-1-0Big 12

Texas Tech

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

Texas Tech

Colorado

Photo by: Chip Bromfield, ProMotion Ltd.

September 28, 2007 | Soccer

Box Score

By: Aaron Lopez, Denver Nuggets

BOULDER - The University of Colorado women's soccer team dropped their Big 12 opener 1-0 to Texas Tech here Friday afternoon at Prentup Field.

"They just beat us today," head coach Bill Hempen said. "I told our guys at half that [Texas Tech] was our team seven years ago. They played with much more urgency than we did. They had a lot of energy out there and they deserved to win today."

The Buffs and the Red Raiders played to a scoreless first half, with CU outshooting TTU six to four. Colorado managed one shot on goal by junior Amber Bettenhausen but Texas Tech goalkeeper Tina Rincon pulled in the save. The half would end at 0-0, as the Red Raiders continued their physical style of play with 12 fouls, to Colorado's one.

Texas Tech (3-3-1, 1-0-0 Big 12) would get on the board in the 77th minute when Zhaleh Rezaie sent a free kick into the middle of the box. TTU's Maegan Wilber exploded through the Buffalo defense and one-touched the ball into the net past CU goalkeeper, Kirstin Radlinski.

Colorado (4-3-3, 0-1-0 Big 12) continued to push for the equalizer in the final minutes as they tried to connect on four different opportunities in the last seven minutes, but they couldn't find the back of the net as the clock expired with the Red Raiders taking the game 1-0.

Junior Amber Bettenhausen led CU with five shots, as the Buffaloes outshot the Red Raiders 19 to 10. Colorado finished with six corner kick opportunities to the Buffs one.

"We were ready for this game, but just didn't come out and perform," Junior Nikki Keller said. "We had trouble finishing, and they just outworked us today."

CU is now 3-9 in Big 12 Conference openers since the program's inception in 1996.

Colorado honored 24 Buffalo alumni at half time as Liz (Swain) Fleigelman, Melissa Gausman, Kyley Ellenberger, Regan Howard, Mellisa (Cartmell) Larson, Andrea (Matassa) Maliska, Sarah Nowfel, Suzy Keifer, Devan (Hansen) Haas, Kendall Pata, Whitney Peterson, Jessica Wallow, Lindsey Galas, Heather Hawkins, Orly Ripmaster, Ellen Falender, Jen Thais, Shannon (Kellogg) Yeager, Fran Munnelly, Ashlie Mihalcin, Darci Smerchek, Katie Griffin and Laura Munnelly all returned back to Boulder for the second annual alumni weekend.

"This is not the way we pictured starting off conference play," Keller said. "We need to have a good, tough practice this week, so we can come out against Nebraska and Iowa State next weekend and get going."

The Buffs will return to action on Friday, Oct. 5 when they take on Nebraska at Prentup Field. The game will be televised by Fox Sports Net Rocky Mountain with former Colorado Rapid and National Soccer Hall of Fame member Marcelo Balboa returning as the game analyst for the match. Balboa will team up with FSN's Marc Stout, who was the play-by-play announcer for FSN Rocky Mountain's Colorado Rapids telecasts from 1997 to 2004.