Thursday, November 17
Columbia, S.C.
5:00 PM
Colorado
15-6-1
0
at
1
South Carolina
20-1-1
1
2
F
Colorado
0
0
0
South Carolina
0
1
1
Sarah Kinzner battles two South Carolina players for possession in Thursday's match.
Photo by: Bob Stoner
No. 3 South Carolina Edges Buffs 1-0 On Penalty Kick Goal
November 17, 2016 | Soccer
COLUMBIA, S.C. - Top seed and No. 3-ranked South Carolina edged No. 20 Colorado 1-0 with a penalty kick goal in the second half of the match in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday night here at Stone Stadium. The loss ended the season for the Buffaloes, who finished with a 15-6-1 record, tying the school record for most wins in a season.
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The Gamecocks (20-1-1) will move on to the third round and face No. 4 BYU on Saturday at home in Columbia.
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WHAT HAPPENED: The game was played almost entirely in the middle-third of the field for the first 15 minutes, but a corner kick by South Carolina in the 16th minute led to a great defensive play by Morgan Stanton, clearing a sure-goal off the line, and then seconds later Jalen Tompkins made a diving save to keep the match scoreless. Tompkins made another save one minute later, leaping to catch a header that was on line for the upper-right corner of the net.
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In the 35th minute, Tompkins made a pair of saves off point-blank shots to keep the match scoreless heading into halftime.
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The best chance of the night came for CU in the 55th minute when Emily Bruder was all alone ahead of SC's defense from 25 yards out, but her shot from inside the box was saved. Three minutes later, a header by Danica Evans went inches right of the goal.
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The match remained scoreless until the 74th minute when a penalty kick was awarded to the Gamecocks after a foul in front of the net. Sophie Groff converted for SC, firing left when Tompkins guessed right, putting the Buffs behind 1-0.
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CU pressured the Gamecocks late, but came up empty.
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NOTABLE PERFORMANCES: Tompkins made four saves for the Buffs. CU was outshot 15-9, but Bruder and Evans had three shot attempts each.
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NOTES: South Carolina was the sixth top-25 opponent CU has faced in the past seven matches, including five in the top 10 ... CU dropped to 8-4 in one-goal matches this season and it was the second 1-0 defeat ... it was the final match for six CU seniors: Bruder, Evans, Kahlia Hogg, Mikaela Kraus, Morgan Stanton and Kenzie Tillitt.
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Postmatch Quotes
Danny Sanchez, head coach
General thoughts on the match
First off, I want to congratulate South Carolina. [They are] a fantastic team, well-coached, well-deserving of their No. 1 seed and they've had a great season so we knew it would be a huge challenge for us on the road. Having said all of that, I felt we played well. I thought we came into a tough environment and competed. Savannah McCaskill is the most dynamic attacker that we've faced this year and I felt that we did, for the most part, a good job of at least trying to contain her. I thought our back four and our goalkeeping did a great job with [her]. Once we got down a goal, I was pleased with how we responded. I felt that we created some opportunities in the final third. At the end of the day, not enough obviously, but I think we gave ourselves a chance. A minute to go in the game we were getting corners and putting a little bit of pressure on them, but it just wasn't enough today."
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On the team's improvement from last place in 2015 to second place in the Pac-12 in 2016
"I think it's important to understand that we finished last place in the Pac-12 last season and we were picked preseason 10th [this season]. We lost quite a few players to graduation. The only people that probably believed in us outside of my family and our awesome coaching staff and our administration support was just these young ladies. And I think it's important to understand that these six seniors bought into everything that we asked of them. We talked to them at the end of last year, 'how do you want to go out, how do you want your season to go?' It's coach speak, but I don't say anything I don't mean. And I couldn't be more proud of this group of seniors for leading us into second place in what we feel is the toughest conference in the country. Coming on the road in a tough environment and competing, I don't think anyone expected that. Like I told them after the game, they've left a legacy of excellence and expectations for us. And we've been here before, it's not our first rodeo, but after last year, there was probably very few people who thought we'd be back here. I couldn't be more proud of these six young ladies. They're fantastic people. I wish nothing but the best for them going forward and whatever they need for the rest of their life, if they ever need anything from me, they can call me 24/7. They know that and I will happily do whatever they need because they're great young ladies."
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On how the complexion of the match changed after the goal after CU had momentum prior to the goal
"I thought our game plan was going ok, we were containing their players. We were starting to get a little stretched out, but when the game started getting stretched, I thought it was creating more room for Emily and Danica and some of our attackers, so we were ok with it. Once South Carolina got the goal with 16 minutes to go, obviously we pushed more numbers forward and created more. But at the end of the day, there's a reason they've given up eight or nine goals all season. They're tough to break down. And their keeper made the save or two she had to when push came to shove. It was a deserved victory for South Carolina tonight, but I thought we gave ourselves a pretty good chance to get a result tonight."
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On calling Savannah McCaskill the most dynamic player CU has faced all season
"She has lots of goals and lots of assists. But I think really her movement off the ball. I think that she finds good pockets of space; she's not one dimensional. She makes great runs. Having said that, Mikaela [Kraus], Alex Vidger, Erin Greening, Kelsey [Aaknes] and Joss [Orejel] who played in the back, I thought they did a great job. If you really look, she didn't have a clear opportunity and I don't think she had a clear final pass. I thought that we did a good job there, but just didn't have enough going forward."
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Emily Bruder, senior, forward
On the team's game plan going against Savannah McCaskill (SEC Player of the Year)
"I think that it was just to stay tight on her and always be aware of everything. We knew that she was dynamic and we knew that she was going to be making runs and we knew that she was good at dribbling. She's their leading scorer and I think our game plan was just to stay with her and watch her and she did a good job holding. But I think we did a great job as well."
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Danica Evans, senior, forward
On the momentum late in the game
"We just kept pushing as a team once they got the PK and scored. We knew we had to keep going and if we were doing well on the attack, we had to focus on keeping the ball and going to goal. We got chances, but in the end, we couldn't put them away."
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The Gamecocks (20-1-1) will move on to the third round and face No. 4 BYU on Saturday at home in Columbia.
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WHAT HAPPENED: The game was played almost entirely in the middle-third of the field for the first 15 minutes, but a corner kick by South Carolina in the 16th minute led to a great defensive play by Morgan Stanton, clearing a sure-goal off the line, and then seconds later Jalen Tompkins made a diving save to keep the match scoreless. Tompkins made another save one minute later, leaping to catch a header that was on line for the upper-right corner of the net.
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In the 35th minute, Tompkins made a pair of saves off point-blank shots to keep the match scoreless heading into halftime.
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The best chance of the night came for CU in the 55th minute when Emily Bruder was all alone ahead of SC's defense from 25 yards out, but her shot from inside the box was saved. Three minutes later, a header by Danica Evans went inches right of the goal.
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The match remained scoreless until the 74th minute when a penalty kick was awarded to the Gamecocks after a foul in front of the net. Sophie Groff converted for SC, firing left when Tompkins guessed right, putting the Buffs behind 1-0.
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CU pressured the Gamecocks late, but came up empty.
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NOTABLE PERFORMANCES: Tompkins made four saves for the Buffs. CU was outshot 15-9, but Bruder and Evans had three shot attempts each.
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NOTES: South Carolina was the sixth top-25 opponent CU has faced in the past seven matches, including five in the top 10 ... CU dropped to 8-4 in one-goal matches this season and it was the second 1-0 defeat ... it was the final match for six CU seniors: Bruder, Evans, Kahlia Hogg, Mikaela Kraus, Morgan Stanton and Kenzie Tillitt.
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Postmatch Quotes
Danny Sanchez, head coach
General thoughts on the match
First off, I want to congratulate South Carolina. [They are] a fantastic team, well-coached, well-deserving of their No. 1 seed and they've had a great season so we knew it would be a huge challenge for us on the road. Having said all of that, I felt we played well. I thought we came into a tough environment and competed. Savannah McCaskill is the most dynamic attacker that we've faced this year and I felt that we did, for the most part, a good job of at least trying to contain her. I thought our back four and our goalkeeping did a great job with [her]. Once we got down a goal, I was pleased with how we responded. I felt that we created some opportunities in the final third. At the end of the day, not enough obviously, but I think we gave ourselves a chance. A minute to go in the game we were getting corners and putting a little bit of pressure on them, but it just wasn't enough today."
Â
On the team's improvement from last place in 2015 to second place in the Pac-12 in 2016
"I think it's important to understand that we finished last place in the Pac-12 last season and we were picked preseason 10th [this season]. We lost quite a few players to graduation. The only people that probably believed in us outside of my family and our awesome coaching staff and our administration support was just these young ladies. And I think it's important to understand that these six seniors bought into everything that we asked of them. We talked to them at the end of last year, 'how do you want to go out, how do you want your season to go?' It's coach speak, but I don't say anything I don't mean. And I couldn't be more proud of this group of seniors for leading us into second place in what we feel is the toughest conference in the country. Coming on the road in a tough environment and competing, I don't think anyone expected that. Like I told them after the game, they've left a legacy of excellence and expectations for us. And we've been here before, it's not our first rodeo, but after last year, there was probably very few people who thought we'd be back here. I couldn't be more proud of these six young ladies. They're fantastic people. I wish nothing but the best for them going forward and whatever they need for the rest of their life, if they ever need anything from me, they can call me 24/7. They know that and I will happily do whatever they need because they're great young ladies."
Â
On how the complexion of the match changed after the goal after CU had momentum prior to the goal
"I thought our game plan was going ok, we were containing their players. We were starting to get a little stretched out, but when the game started getting stretched, I thought it was creating more room for Emily and Danica and some of our attackers, so we were ok with it. Once South Carolina got the goal with 16 minutes to go, obviously we pushed more numbers forward and created more. But at the end of the day, there's a reason they've given up eight or nine goals all season. They're tough to break down. And their keeper made the save or two she had to when push came to shove. It was a deserved victory for South Carolina tonight, but I thought we gave ourselves a pretty good chance to get a result tonight."
Â
On calling Savannah McCaskill the most dynamic player CU has faced all season
"She has lots of goals and lots of assists. But I think really her movement off the ball. I think that she finds good pockets of space; she's not one dimensional. She makes great runs. Having said that, Mikaela [Kraus], Alex Vidger, Erin Greening, Kelsey [Aaknes] and Joss [Orejel] who played in the back, I thought they did a great job. If you really look, she didn't have a clear opportunity and I don't think she had a clear final pass. I thought that we did a good job there, but just didn't have enough going forward."
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Emily Bruder, senior, forward
On the team's game plan going against Savannah McCaskill (SEC Player of the Year)
"I think that it was just to stay tight on her and always be aware of everything. We knew that she was dynamic and we knew that she was going to be making runs and we knew that she was good at dribbling. She's their leading scorer and I think our game plan was just to stay with her and watch her and she did a good job holding. But I think we did a great job as well."
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Danica Evans, senior, forward
On the momentum late in the game
"We just kept pushing as a team once they got the PK and scored. We knew we had to keep going and if we were doing well on the attack, we had to focus on keeping the ball and going to goal. We got chances, but in the end, we couldn't put them away."
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Team Stats
COLO
SC
Goals
0
1
Shots
9
15
Shots on Goal
5
6
Saves
5
5
Corners
4
5
Fouls
6
7
Scoring Plays
Groff, Sophie (9)
SC Groff, Sophie PENALTY KICK GOAL, goal number 9 for season.
73:15
Game Leaders
Shots
3
SOG
3
Goals
0
Assists
0
Shots
3
SOG
1
Goals
0
Assists
0
Shots
2
SOG
0
Goals
0
Assists
0
Shots
1
SOG
1
Goals
0
Assists
0
Players Mentioned
F
/ SoccerF
/ Soccer
F
/ Soccer
M
/ Soccer
M
/ Soccer
M
/ Soccer
D
/ Soccer
GK
/ Soccer
D
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