Buffs Come Up Short Against No. 4 USC

Sunday, October 30

Boulder, Colo.

12:00 PM

Colorado

USC

Danica Evans fights through two USC players for possession.

Photo by: CUBuffs.com

October 30, 2016 | Soccer

Box Score

By: Andy Schlichting, Assistant SID

BOULDER - No. 22 Colorado suffered just its second defeat in Pac-12 play this season, falling 3-0 to No. 4 Southern California here at Prentup Field on Sunday. The Buffs slipped out of first place with just one match remaining, dropping to 14-5 overall and 8-2 in the Pac-12. USC improved to 14-3-1 and 8-1-1.

WHAT HAPPENED: USC struck first in the 24th minute. The Buffs gave USC a free kick from 25 yards out in the center of the field. Morgan Andrews's free kick was saved with a diving stop by Jalen Tompkins, but the rebound came to Alex Anthony for an easy tap-in in front of the net.

In the 36th minute, Savannah Levin drove into the right side of the box and scored. Tompkins got both hands on the point-blank shot, but it pushed through for the goal.

CU nearly trimmed the deficit in half in the final minute of the first half. Alex Vidger headed a corner kick on goal, but a Trojans defender cleared the ball off the goal line.

The Buffs gained some momentum early in the second half, but USC struck again in the 67th minute when Anthony scored for the second time in the match. She dribbled in the left side of the box and was able to squeeze a shot between Tompkins and the near post from six yards.

NOTABLE PERFORMANCES: Scout Watson replaced Tompkins in the 69th minute and made two saves. Taylor Kornieck had a team-high three shot attempts.

UP NEXT: CU will host Utah at 3 p.m. on Friday at Prentup Field in the final regular-season match of the year.

NOTES: The crowd of 1,917 was the fourth-highest ever at Prentup Field and the highest since 2009 ... Watson made her first appearance in goal since Sept. 11 against Iowa.

POSTGAME QUOTES
Danny Sanchez, head coach
On how the team started
"Well I think we started okay. They have the number five RPI in the country for a reason. They are so dangerous moving forward. But having said that I mean those two set pieces that we didn't defend well. I thought the second half I thought we came out with more energy obviously they are going to take the foot off the gas a little bit, I thought we created some second-half chances. The main thing we wanted out of the second half is that we wanted to compete and I thought we did that. Today wasn't our day, all the credit to USC they deserved the win for sure. We still have a lot to play for and we will move on from this and get ready for Utah on Friday for Senior Day."

On the second goal miscommunication
"Sometimes you have to give credit where credit is due. It was a great run by their right back. It's not something that you ever see in that corner. There should have been some cover there. So we didn't deal with it so that's a little disappointing because the two set pieces that we didn't deal with as a team. It wasn't really one individual's breakdown it was really a team breakdown."

On getting refocused for Utah
"Big picture this is a very good team and it wasn't our day. We needed to play really well and we needed to play really well to get a result today. I thought we played okay but we didn't play really well. So there's no shame in that. The big thing for me is I want to make sure that we know the attendance, the atmosphere was the best since I've been here. The band, all the kids, all the staff, the administration and obviously the community coming out was fantastic. I just really hope they come out for Senior Day next Friday because this group of seniors is special. And we are excited to see where the season takes us."

Sarah Kinzner, sophomore, midfielder
On what limited CU's chances...
"Well USC is great oppositionally, they're ranked fourth in the nation. When we came out there I thought we fought really hard. We tried to play our game. It took a little bit of time to get into the flow of it, but I definitely thought we came out in the second half and fought hard for sure. It's unfortunate."

On the miscommunication during second goal…
"Yeah stuff like that definitely happens in a game and I think we kind of just need to build on that and learn from that. We need to make sure that doesn't happen at our game against Utah coming up on Friday. We just have to move forward from it."

On what the teams going to do to shake off loss…
"I think we just have to stay positive from here and definitely learn from what happened during this game. We've got a big game against us and we've just got to come out hard for that one."

On how it's going to be harder to win the conference after this loss…
"I just think we have to keep going forward. The season's not over. We still have a lot of games. This Utah one coming up, we just have to make sure we capitalize on it and get a win out of it.