Buffs Power Through Oklahoma State At NCAA Tournament

BOULDER - No. 20 Colorado was the beneficiary of two first-half own goals and defeated Oklahoma State 3-1 on Saturday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Prentup Field.

CU improved to 15-5-1 this season, tying the school record for most wins in a season.

WHAT HAPPENED: CU took a 1-0 lead in the 18th minute when OSU defender Haley Woodard headed in a flip throw-in by Danica Evans.

The Buffs pushed the lead to 2-0 on another own goal in the 37th minute. Mikaela Kraus sent a free kick from midfield into the box and OSU's Natalie Calhoun headed it in off the left post.

The Cowgirls got within a goal in the 53rd minute when Courtney Dike dribbled into the box from the left side, beat a defender, and slipped the ball between goalkeeper Jalen Tompkins and the near post.

With CU attacking on a late counter, Emily Bruder sent the ball up to Evans on the left side and Evans beat the goalkeeper in the middle of the box for an easy breakaway goal with 12 seconds remaining in the match.

NOTABLE PERFORMANCES: Tompkins made five saves in goal. For Evans, it was her 11th goal of the year and she moved ahead of Taylor Kornieck with a team-high 28 points this season.

UP NEXT: Colorado will face third-ranked South Carolina, a No. 1 seed in the tournament, next weekend on the road in the second round.

NOTES: CU is now 8-8-1 all-time in the NCAA Tournament and has advanced to the second round in each of the past three appearances, all under head coach Danny Sanchez ... this was the first game in school history CU has had two own goals scored by its opponent.

Postmatch Quotes
Colorado Head Coach Danny Sanchez
General
"First of all like I told the team I couldn't be more proud. It was a tough game today, Oklahoma State is a tough team. I thought we played very well in the first half, they got that goal but I was really happy with how we responded. Obviously Danica [Evans] getting the one late, but more importantly I'm just really proud of the team today."

On Taylor Kornieck's Presence
"Obviously Danica is dangerous with those set pieces with getting them in there. Taylor does so much work defensively for us as well with the attack. She'll sleep well tonight, she played 84 minutes so we had to give her a little bit of a break there. She was on both ends, winning headers and playing box-to-box, it was a fantastic effort by her."

On Slowing Down OSU's Courtney Dike
"You can see why she's co-offensive player of the year in the Big 12. She doesn't need much and she scored on her one opportunity. But I think other than that we wanted to put pressure on her and provide cover. I thought for the majority of the game we did just that."

On Senior Defender Mikaela Kraus
"I think it's important to understand that a player, who comes in late not even committing till her senior year which in our sport is unheard of. And every day she has to battle for a spot. And it wasn't maybe three or four weeks ago where she was hardly playing at all. But she never hung her head or made excuses. She just kept working and working, and now she's a starting center back for a top 25 team. And I think this is an important lesson for a lot of players and people. If you don't have instant gratification, how about just working a little bit harder. So I couldn't be happier for her."

On Senior Forward Danica Evans
"I must have said it ten times in the preseason, that Danica's going to have a breakout season this year. And I trusted her because I knew she had it in her. The thing that separating Danica this year from years past, is that she's not only scoring goals and creating, but she's doing the work. I was yelling at her to go mark OSU's number 17, and she responded by hustling back there. The whole group of seniors are fantastic."

On Crowd Support for the Game
"I wanted to acknowledge what a great support we've had this whole season at Prentup Field. We had 1,200 here today, on short notice for a NCAA Tournament game, which was fantastic. And they really pushed us through that second half when there was some delays, and then they socred and the clock kept stopping. But with three minutes to go, after Taylor won a couple of headers, the crowd rose and cheered and that really pushed us through the last moments of the match. So I really want to thank our supporters, our student-body, the surrounding community of Boulder and our administrators that came out for us."

On CU's Next Opponent South Carolina
"Sadly I know a lot about South Caroline because I watch a lot of soccer. But South Carolina is really good. They tied their first match of the season against Oklahoma, who finished top 15 RPI, then they won 18 in a row. They dropped a game to Florida in the SEC Tournament, which maybe was ok because they could rest a little bit more before the NCAA Tournament. They were always going to be a number one seed, they were between one and three RPI the whole year. They have a kid up top who's absolutely fantastic, junior forward Savannah McCaskill, and she's one of the top strikers in the country. They're experienced and they have good leadership on their team. They're just a really good team. But like I just told our team, we've played a lot of good teams this year as well. We played in what we feel is the top conference in the country and we've done well. We're a good team, so we're excited for the opportunity to go there and play in an environment like that. So we can test ourselves and hopefully we can put together a really good performance and give South Carolina all they can handle."

Danica Evans Sr., F
On Getting Ready for the Next Round
"Definitely just working hard in training. And if we take what we did today in the game, working hard defensively, and finishing the chances we get up top. I think we'll have a good game just like today."

On Finish at Home This Season Compared to Last Season
"It's pretty bittersweet. It's the last time we're going to play here, and for me it was exciting to get that last goal. But its more exciting to win here with our team and advance together."

On the Final Goal Scored in the Game
"I have to give all the praise to Emily [Bruder] she's really good at getting to the end line and cutting the ball back. I was screaming for the ball, and she found me. I saw the goalie coming, and we train all the time on breakaways. So I knew I was more comfortable dribbling past her, and then I saw the goal and just passed it in."

Mikaela Kraus Sr., D
On Marking OSU's Courtney Dike
"She's a great player. In practice we talked about making sure that we provide cover, and I think that our defense works really well together and we made sure that we were compact. She did get one opportunity but we didn't let that stop us, and we just kept shutting her down."

On Getting Ready for the Next Round
"Off the field we just need to do everything we can to get ready. We need to eat right and make sure we recover. So just focus on the things off the field as well."

On Finish at Home This Season Compared to Last Season
"Last season was definitely disappointing. We were lucky because we knew that we had another year where we could turn things around. But we're pretty happy on how we went out on Prentup Field."

Oklahoma State Postgame
Head Coach Colin Carmichael
On the own goals
"We knew one of our big challenges was going to be dealing with that (Taylor Kornieck's height advantage). You can practice it all you want but if it's 6'1 and 6'0 going against 5'9 and 5'8 it's difficult. Our kids were just completing and trying to head the ball out it could have gone anywhere so more of the set play than the own goal I think."

On the presence of Taylor Kornieck leading to own goal situations
"There's no doubt there is a reason why she has so many goals and there is a reason why she was able to dominate in the air like she has all throughout the season. I thought Julia Lenhardt who was matched up with her for most of the game did an outstanding job. It was more about on the dead ball situations, the flip throw in the corner. We knew that's something that we were going to have some issues with. But you know, I thought throughout the game we played very well. I thought it was a very evenly contested game. Colorado took advantage of their set play opportunities and that was the difference in the match. I thought other than that statistically and statutorily we were right there if not a little bit ahead of them."

On the loss of Claire Gantzer in pregame
"Well first off you just feel gutted for that kid. You know she's worked hard all season, she's starting left back as a freshman and get injured in the warmup. She tore her ACL we think. So you feel awful for the kid but you know the game goes on. I thought our players who played did a great job filling in. You know Christina Jean-Charles, Charme Morgan, and Niki McKnight all played the similar position. I thought they did a very good job but it does hurt your rotation. You know it takes off one sub off the bench especially when you're playing at attitude which can be crucial. So not so much of Claire being off the field but someone had to start who might have been subbing in and that messed up our rotation a little bit. First and foremost I feel bad for Claire she was dying to play.

#14 Marlo Zoller
Reaction to the own goal
"It's frustrating but I think we left it out on the field. We gave it our all so it's easier to cope will because we played so well and we were right up with them. Those were just mistakes that happened to turn into goals."

#23 Haley Woodard
Reaction to the own goals
"I think along the lines of that it wasn't necessarily the own goal, it was the mistake of giving them the free kick and then giving them the long throw. We try to talk about avoiding that but obviously in the play of the game it's hard to keep exactly to the strategy but it's just frustrating either way I think."

Buffs Power Through Oklahoma State At NCAA Tournament

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Team Stats

Danica Evans

Emily Bruder

Sarah Kinzner

Taylor Kornieck

Players Mentioned

Emily Bruder

Danica Evans

Taylor Kornieck

Mikaela Kraus

Jalen Tompkins

Players Mentioned

Emily Bruder

Danica Evans

Taylor Kornieck

Mikaela Kraus

Jalen Tompkins