Defense Leading First-Place Buffs

BOULDER - Defense wins championships. It's a cliché saying, but is also a proven fact. Last year's Denver Broncos won the Super Bowl with a mediocre offense and one of the best defenses in league history. In soccer, last year's USWNT was a perfect example, winning the FIFA World Cup. The United States had two more clean sheets than any other country in the tournament, yet it was Germany's offense scoring a tournament-best 20 goals. Germany settled for fourth place and the U.S. won gold. The Broncos and the USWNT were nowhere near the first teams to win a championship with the help of an elite defense and certainly won't be the last.

Colorado's soccer team (10-3 overall, 4-0 in the Pac-12) is sitting in first place in the Pac-12 behind a high-level defense this season. While freshman Taylor Kornieck has stolen many headlines for her scoring abilities, the CU defense is quietly putting together its best season in school history.

Led by a mix of upperclassmen and underclassmen on the back line, along with a redshirt freshman goalkeeper, the Buffs are allowing just 0.68 goals per 90 minutes this season. That number ranks 35th nationally and is on pace for the lowest goals-against average in CU history.

The defense has been shaken up recently due to injuries as senior Kahlia Hogg, juniors Joss Orejel and Courtney Fedor, sophomores Erin Greening and Alex Vidger, and freshman Kelsey Aaknes have all been major contributors to the back four. Jalen Tompkins has taken over the starting goalkeeper position as a redshirt freshman, already breaking the freshman record for wins by a goalkeeper and ranking second in saves. Midfielders Morgan Stanton and Mikaela Kraus have also been key in the defense's success.

"They're communicating well," head coach Danny Sanchez said of the defense after Thursday's 3-1 win over Oregon. We're not giving up a lot of great opportunities and when we do, JJ [Tompkins] is typically there to deal with them."

CU had its shutout streak snapped on Thursday at 444 minutes and 40 seconds, the third-longest shutout streak by a team in school history. Tompkins had her individual streak end at 480:43, breaking current assistant Annie Brunner's previous record.

Tompkins has stood out among the nation's best goalkeepers, regardless of class. She is 18th nationally in goals-against average (0.53) and ninth in save percentage (.897). She credits the work of the players in front of her for much of the success.

"My defense does most of the work for me," Tompkins said on Thursday. She continued, "I think from each line, from the defense, to the midfield, to the forwards, everybody's just doing what they can and getting more confidence."

That confidence will be key as the pressure mounts as wins continue to pile up. After Thursday's round of matches, the Buffs are tied with Southern California atop the conference standings with 12 points each. However, the Buffs have yet to play USC, California, UCLA, Utah or Stanford, all in the top six right now in the Pac-12, with four of those opponents ranked in the top 15 nationally.

Sunday, the Buffs will host a desperate Oregon State team at 1 p.m. at Prentup Field. The Beavers are currently winless in Pac-12 play, but have five wins overall.

"Each team we've played has been very, very good," Tompkins said. "But it only gets harder and I think we have to take it day-by-day. Just take one game at a time."

The attitude has been preached since the season began and seems to have worked well so far.

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Players Mentioned

Kelsey Aaknes

Courtney Fedor

Erin Greening

Kahlia Hogg

Taylor Kornieck

Mikaela Kraus

Joss Orejel

Morgan Stanton

Jalen Tompkins

Alex Vidger

Colorado University Athletics