Tough matchups translate to tough results for the Buffs last weekend

     It was a busy weekend all-around for Colorado sports teams across the country. Both women’s and men’s teams were competing in important matchups, with tennis, soccer, volleyball and basketball all on center stage. The Bold will be releasing a recap of the men’s basketball team’s performance in the PAC-12 Conference Tournament later this week, here is a recap of other contests that took place over the past weekend. 

     *Editor’s note* Due to outside circumstances including the snowstorm, the publication for this piece has been delayed. We are including a few paragraphs about more recent matchups involving the teams that were written about, but these recaps are strictly going over contests that occurred over the last weekend.*

The Colorado Buffaloes soccer team was defeated at home for the first time in 505 days in a close battle against undefeated No. 3 UCLA last Friday 1-0 at Prentup Field in Boulder. The Buffs could not find the back of the net all day being shut out after UCLA scored once early. Colorado has not defeated the Bruins since 2016, but they managed to hold them to just one goal; UCLA has been averaging 2.5 goals a match this year. 

“I thought we started a little slow and it was disappointing to give up that goal,” head coach Danny Sanchez said postgame. “When you look at it from after that, I don’t know when their second shot on goal was, but it wasn’t until the middle or late in the second half. Although we gave up that early goal, I was pleased with how we responded. I thought in the second half we played much better. We created a lot more chances.”

     Colorado (4-3-1, 1-2-1 PAC-12) let in a goal early in the match as UCLA’s Delanie Sheehan snuck in a shot after a try was bounced off a Colorado defender right back to Sheehan for a one-timer right past Buffs’ goalkeeper Dani Hansen in the 7th minute. Hansen, who has been playing superlative, reached 45 saves on the year and did not let another one get by for the rest of the match, defending against 15 more shots making three saves. 

     The Buffs’ offense shot 10 times but only could put two on the net against one of the top teams in the nation. Nine of the shots came in the second half when they amped up the pressure; Kayleigh Webb and Shyra James took three shots each. Webb, who had the two shots on goal, took the final opportunity for the Buffaloes with a shot in the 89th minute. Unfortunately, it was swallowed up by UCLA goalkeeper Lauren Brzykcy who completed the save against the Buffs, her fourth clean sheet of the year. 

     “I think if we had five more minutes, we definitely would have gotten a goal,” junior Kayleigh Webb commented post-match. “Defensively, we did great, stepping up on players and not letting them through. Getting forward, I think our outside players served great balls in for our forwards. We just didn’t get lucky today, but it’s coming.”   

     Sanchez, who has been the head coach of Colorado since 2012, ended up picking up his 100th victory with the team after they defeated the University of Southern California Monday afternoon following a delay due to the snowstorm. The Buffs won in a thrilling 3-2 double overtime contest against the Trojans. Sanchez and the squad will look to pick up their sixth win of the season Saturday at Utah.

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     Also on Friday afternoon, the Colorado women’s tennis team got swept by a solid Oregon team in Eugene, OR. The Buffaloes move to 7-4 and 1-2 in conference play on the year after the 0-7 loss. Colorado was just ranked inside the top 50 for the first time since 2015 at 47, which came after their upset victory against the California Golden Bears last week. The team is still without sophomore Sophia Derivan, one of Colorado’s best players. 

     Colorado (7-4, 1-2 Pac-12) kept the same doubles strategy that worked last week in their highest ranked conference win in program history, as the pair of Sara Nayar and Fleur Eggink teamed up for the second time of the season at No.1 doubles. The duo fell this time around (2-6) while the No.3 doubles team of Ky Ecton and Maria Campos lost (4-6) giving Oregon the doubles point. Colorado went on to lose all singles matches with Campos winning the Buffs only set on the day.  

     It wasn’t the day the Buffaloes were hoping for as they have now dropped from the top 50 in the rankings. After their home match against New Mexico was canceled due to weather, Colorado will hit the road once again to take on No. 21 USC on Friday and No. 5 UCLA on Saturday. This will be a very tough pair of matches for the Buffs, as they will look to rebound against two very tough opponents.

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     The third matchup of the day Friday saw the  Colorado Buffaloes Volleyball team lose in four sets to the Arizona Wildcats in Tucson, AZ  after Arizona’s offense proved to be too much for the Lady Buffaloes. With the loss, Colorado ended their seven game losing streak to ranked opponents, the last victory was their upset over then ranked No. 12 UCLA last week. However, their tough schedule continued as they let in double digit aces and blocks against Arizona on Friday night.  

     “You can’t win matches in this league when you lose the serve pass game by a large margin- which is what happened to us tonight. We will look to respond.” head coach Jesse Mahoney commented after the game.

     Colorado (5-8, 5-8 Pac-12) fought hard in the first set after leading during most of it but the Buffs made too many errors allowing the Wildcats to sneak back and take the first set (25-27). Colorado had five serving errors in the first set, which was half their total all match. The Buffaloes regrouped and took the second set (25-22,) tying the game up with one set each. Arizona’s attack held too strong for Colorado, as they won the remaining two sets back-to-back (9-25) and (22-25), taking the match. The Wildcats completely dominated the Buffaloes in the third frame, hitting an absurd percentage of .478 while Colorado hit just .071 in the set. Arizona then closed the door in the fourth set with 14 kills against the visitors.

     The Wildcats offence was too much for CU to handle, as the Cats hit for .212 while Colorado hit for .138 for the whole match. Arizona had 10 aces to Colorado’s seven, and the Buffs’ created serving errors. Colorado’s Leah Clayton led the Buffs with 14 kills and a .265 hitting percentage, while Jenna Ewert posted her 31st career double double, moving her into a tie for the 17th most in CU history. Brynna Deluzio also added a team high 22 assists to help out in the Friday night match. 

     On Sunday evening, the same two teams squared off, again in Tucson, and it was the exact same result, a win in four sets for Arizona. The Buffaloes fall to 5-9 on the season, and return home to face No. 11 Utah on Friday, and then again on Sunday. 

     Colorado has had an incredible challenging schedule this year, but the group is not reaching their full potential this year. The Buffaloes’ schedule lightens up as they go into the latter half of the season, with no scheduled matches against any ranked opponents following their weekend series against the Utes.