No. 19 Buffs Overcome Halftime Deficit To Shock No. 18 Stanford

BOULDER – After trailing 12-6 heading into halftime on Friday afternoon, the 19^th-ranked Colorado Buffaloes outscored No. 18 Stanford 12-4 in the second half to stun the Cardinal with a thrilling 18-16 victory in the first-ever Pac-12 Conference game at Kittredge Field.

The win is the second straight against a top-20 opponent for the Buffs as they improved to 4-2 overall and earned their first ever Pac-12 game. Stanford is now 3-3 overall and 0-1 in league action.

WHAT HAPPENED: The Buffs got on the board first with sophomore Anna Collawn's first career goal at 27:02 off a pass from senior Darby Kiernan, but the Cardinal responded with a quick pair of markers to take a 2-1 advantage. Junior Samantha Nemirov tied the game up at 2-2 with her first of the game at 21:32; but just 16 seconds later, Kelsey Murray put the Cardinal back in the lead (3-2).

The Buffs collected a pair of markers from junior Miranda Stinson at 21:05 and 20:03, putting CU back on top, 4-3, but that lead did not last long as Stanford scored its fifth goal at 17:07 and tallied five more to give the Cardinal a commanding 9-4 advantage. Stinson ended SU's run with a goal at 9:35, but again the Cardinal came back firing, this time adding three more goals to its score for a 12-5 lead with 7:43 left in the first half. Kiernan was able to find the back of the net for the first time in the game with 2:20 left in the half, ending the scoring for both teams in the frame.

The Cardinal led 12-6 at halftime, but the Buffs rallied with five straight goals to start the second half, which cut SU's lead to just one (12-11) with goals from senior Carly Cox, freshman Sadie Grozier. Kiernan and a pair from Stinson. Stanford responded at that point with two more goals to push its lead back to three (14-11) with 18:33 left in the game.

Grozier was fouled shortly after and converted for CU's only free-position goal of the game, cutting the lead to two (14-12), but just like it had done before, the Cardinal responded with a pair of goals to increase the lead to four (16-12) with 14:15 remaining in the contest.

Colorado did not back down and continued to fight. Kiernan recorded three consecutive goals to again put the Buffs within a goal with less than 10 minutes to play. Cox tied the game up at 7:54 after a quick pass from Kiernan and sophomore Jen Mistretta tallied the game-winning goal 50 seconds later, and again Kiernan was on the assist.

The Buffs led the game 17-16 and had some great defensive spots before Cox was able to record her third goal of the game to give the Buffs a two-goal cushion with 2:54 remaining. CU was able to hold off the Cardinal's last minute attempt for the impressive 18-16 win.

DEFENSE: For the second straight game, goalkeeper Julia Lisella recorded double-figure saves, this time with 16. The 16 saves ties for the fifth most ever recorded by a Buffalo. She recorded eight in the first half and eight in the second. The defensive unit as a whole also played well, especially in the second half. CU has five caused turnovers, which included a pair from Kelsie Garrison.

OFFENSE: Darby Kiernan led the Buffs with eight points. She recorded five goals and added three assists. In addition, she also had nine draw control wins and picked up two ground balls.

LARGEST COMEBACK: The Buffs trailed the Cardinal 12-5 late in the first half and came back to defeat Stanford 18-16. The seven-goal deficit is the largest CU has ever overcome in a win. The previous record had been five against Michigan. CU trailed 11-6 on March 22, 2015 to the Wolverines and came back to defeat them 14-13 in double-overtime.

NOTABLE:

This was the first ever game in Pac-12 Conference history. Oregon is scheduled to host California at 7 p.m. MT and Southern California will host Arizona State on Saturday, March 10, at 1 p.m. MT.
The Buffs have now won 13 straight games at Kittredge Field, dating back to the 2016 season.
CU has now won the last three meetings between the two teams, but Stanford leads the all-time series 6-3.
Madi Wifall earned her first career start.
Anna Collawn tallied her first career goal, which was also the first goal in the history of the Pac-12 Conference. Darby Kiernan had the assist, which is also the first in Pac-12 history.
Kiernan scored five goals in the win, marking the third time this season she has done so.
This is the most goals scored between Stanford and Colorado. The second most was 30 in 2015; Stanford won the game 16-14 in Boulder.
This was also the CU record for most combined goals in a game at 34.
The previous record for combined goals in a game is 33, which was set on Feb. 15, 2015 against Jacksonville. JU won 20-13.
CU has now won three straight after starting the season 1-2.

TEAM LEADERS:

Colorado

Points: 23

Goals: 18

Assists: 5

Draw Controls: 15

Ground Balls: 21

Saves: 16

Stanford

Points: 22

Goals: 16

Assists: 6

Draw Controls: 21

Ground Balls: 15

Saves: 9

QUOTEABLE:
Head Coach Ann Elliott
On the Comeback In The Second Half
"I think for us it's just about sticking to our game plan and doing the little things. It took us awhile to get into the game. I think in terms of fifty-fifty balls, defensively just making stops. Once we were able to do that, once we got some more draw controls and possessions, I thought we did a good job of executing both ends of the field."

On the Draw Controls
"I think the difference with our team overall is your back is against the wall a little bit and you start committing to all the little things you need to do for sixty minutes. I think in terms of draws, Stanford is a tough team. They are physical, fast, and they were just beating us to the ball every ball. In the second half I thought we did a better job in our set up. A better job of putting ourselves into a position to come up with some of those fifty-fifty balls and offensively just being aggressive. When we had the ball I thought we were able to convert."

On the First Ever Pac-12 Game
"In all honestly, I don't know if anyone on our team knew it was the first Pac-12 game in the beginning. I think we were just focused on playing a great team in Stanford and coming out here and competing in our first Pac-12 game. Obviously it's a conference game and conference is huge for us so for us it's a big win. We know we have to be better and we need to rebound quickly for Sunday."

On The Play of Julia Lisella:
"I thought Julia did a great job of staying in the game especially mentally. I think as a team when you let in twelve goals in the first half it's hard. It is hard to stay in it. Our team continued to stay in it and focused on doing the little things. I thought Julia did too and she came up with some huge saves for us down the stretch."

Senior Attacker Darby Kiernan
On what they talked about at halftime-
"We just went into the half knowing we had to work hard to come back in the second half and we knew we had a plan that we had to stick to it. We worked really well together in the second half. It was a really good win and it feels very good."

On Julia Lisella in the second half-
"She played unbelievable and she came up with a bunch of huge stops in the second half. Our defense played really well too, it was just awesome."

On First Pac-12 win-
"It's unreal. The support here is incredible. It just feels really good, it was really fun and the fans are just awesome."

On former teammate Paige (Soenksen) being the assistant head coach of Cal-
"It's going to be fun and awesome to see her again so I'm really excited to play against her and see her."

Kelsie Garrison
On what they talked about at halftime-
"We always talk about how the score doesn't matter. We want to go out there and want to be proud of what we are doing. We want to play together. It's not about the score; it's what you are going to do next."

No. 19 Buffs Overcome Halftime Deficit To Shock No. 18 Stanford

Next Event

Team Stats

Miranda Stinson

Darby Kiernan

Carly Cox

Sadie Grozier

Players Mentioned

Anna Collawn

Carly Cox

Kelsie Garrison

Sadie Grozier

Darby Kiernan

Julia Lisella

Jen Mistretta

Samantha Nemirov

Miranda Stinson

Madi Wifall

Players Mentioned

Anna Collawn

Carly Cox

Kelsie Garrison

Sadie Grozier

Darby Kiernan

Julia Lisella

Jen Mistretta

Samantha Nemirov

Miranda Stinson

Madi Wifall

No. 19 Buffs Overcome Halftime Deficit To Shock No. 18 Stanford

Related News

Next Event

Team Stats

Game Leaders

Miranda Stinson

Darby Kiernan

Carly Cox

Sadie Grozier

Players Mentioned

Anna Collawn

Carly Cox

Kelsie Garrison

Sadie Grozier

Darby Kiernan

Julia Lisella

Jen Mistretta

Samantha Nemirov

Miranda Stinson

Madi Wifall

Related News

Players Mentioned

Anna Collawn

Carly Cox

Kelsie Garrison

Sadie Grozier

Darby Kiernan

Julia Lisella

Jen Mistretta

Samantha Nemirov

Miranda Stinson

Madi Wifall

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