And tie they did !! Now it's down to USC & UCLA ... we finish with 19 points, USC has OREGON STATE SCORED !! It was an own goal by Oregon but I doubt that the Beavers care. Fourth of the season, second in conference, and they are ahead of Oregon. 18 and the Washingtons and Cal finish with 17. So the worst we finish is fourth, by ourselves, if USC defeats UCLA. Sounds like playoffs to me. Now for the Buffs and Utah ... The first half was a tale of two quarters. Utah camped in our end of the field and owned the first quarter. We did manage a couple of understaffed counter-attacks, but otherwise we defended. Fortunately our makeshift (two forwards and a midfielder joining Bianca) defend rather well, we needed them to. In the 27th minute we managed an adequately staffed counter-attack and Darcy got us a shot on goal. I wondered if this would energize the Buffs a bit. Well, yes. We gathered in the goal kick and got the ball to Madi who found Brie who found the back of the net and after doing approximately nothing for 27 minutes, it was 1-0. The rest of the half was ALL Buffs, six of our nine shots on goal came in the second quarter, and at 37 minutes the Utah goalkeeper blocked a shot and Darcy was in the right place for the short rebound which came to her, 2-0. We didn't back off in the second half, but Utah regrouped at halftime and the second half was back and forth, both teams created chances and Utah kept our defense busy. Kate preserved the shutout with a leaping tip just over the crossbar. Tori was a monster the entire 90 minutes, I don't know how many shots she blocked and passes she intercepted and balls she cleared, but the amount was huge. A big highlight of the second half was a substitute named Alex Huynh. Been a while since she acquired her owie before conference play, and although she only played ten minutes, she appeared recovered from the injury. Shots on goal were 9-5 Buffs, corner kicks 6-1 Utes, offsides 6-0 Buffs. The seniors were honored by a crowd of hundred, singular, maybe. Not counting the rest of the team and the seniors' families and the Utah People, I'm not sure there were a hundred people there. A noon starting time on a workday is not conducive to attendance. But apparently a lot of fans got/took the afternoon off because by halftime it looked pretty much like a normal Friday crowd, attendance wound up at 784 and the afternoon was windy and not that warm. We're going into the playoffs with more injuries than I would like but there are teams with more than we have ... Utah comes to mind.
News of the Neighborhood, Tournament Edition Big Sky Conference: In an evenly played match, Northern Colorado lost to Idaho State 2-1 in the second overtime. ISU scored in the 55th minute, UNC equalized 14 seconds later, and it ended in the 102nd minute. Mountain West Conference: Colorado College trailed Utah State 1-0 at the half and scored three times in the second half for a 3-1 win to put themselves into the semi-final. At and against San Diego State, the Tigers outplayed the Aztecs, tied 1-1 and were eliminated on penalty kicks 3-2. Wyoming had a bye in the first round, then defeated New Mexico 2-1 in the first overtime. The Cowgirls play for the tournament championship and a playoff berth against regular season champion San Diego State Saturday night at 8PM Mountain Time. Summit Conference: Hosting the tournament, #3 seed Denver thoroughly outplayed #2 seed IUPUI and got the goal they needed in the middle of the third quarter for a 1-0 win in front of a teeming horde of 316 fans. The Pioneers play for the tournament championship and a playoff berth against regular season champion South Dakota State Saturday at 1PM Mountain Time, the match will be broadcast on Altitude and ESPN3. Speaking of teeming hordes, UCLA defeated USC 2-0 in front of 10,100+ at the Coliseum, and all-time regular-season record for NCAA women's soccer.
We came That Close to likely getting Denver as a first round playoff opponent again. The Pioneers lost the Summit League tournament to South Dakota State on penalty kicks after a 1-1 tie. Denver was 31 seconds away from the playoffs when SDSU scored in the 90th minute. The Jackrabbits had been a D-2 team, moved up and were first eligible for the playoffs in 2008. In something of an upset they won their tournament and were assigned to a first round match in St. Paul against the #15 team in the country, a herd of large prairie animals from where the high plains meet the Rockies. Shots were 22-10 Buffs, on goal 10-3, corner kicks 6-0. We lost 1-0. The announcer only called them San Diego State once. Remind me to never again say anything even remotely negative about our attendance. Denver played at home for a conference tournament championship and a playoff berth on a warm and sunny Saturday afternoon in front of an announced uncrowd of 314. We still have a shot at a neighborhood first round opponent if Wyoming can upset the other SDSU this evening. The Aztecs defeated the Cowgirls 5-2 two weeks ago and have been totally vincible ever since, struggling to a 1-0 overtime win at Colorado State, losing at home to New Mexico, and being outplayed by Colorado College and advancing to this game on penalty kicks. I'm an Aztec so don't tell anybody but just between us ... Go Cowgirls !!
They didn't, but it took the Aztecs 97 minutes to score. Kasey Curtis won't be MVP because the Cowgirls didn't win, but she was the best. Kasey and GK Alex Boehm made the all-tournament team. They graduate, but the Cowgirls have 12 freshmen and 7 sophomores on the roster this year. So now that we know who we won't play, we wait to see who we do play and where. I'm guessing that our RPI will be around 40, so maybe a first round game at a not-too-far team with a higher RPI. BYU? Their RPI is somewhere right around where ours is I think, but they draw huge crowds so they might get a home game. Kansas? Texas Tech? I can't think of anybody not 500-600 miles away or more.
I don't know. Between the Pac-12 Network and BYUTV, I expect there will be cameras here. I sure hope it's played on Saturday afternoon, we do not have lights. More Buff fans AND more Cougar fans will be able to attend if it's Saturday. It will be very cold.
Keeping my fingers crossed. I really wish BYU had beaten Pepperdine to ensure a high-quality production of at least one first round game.
Isn't it a matter of who has the rights to televise? I suspect that would be Pac 12. However, if BYU ends up televising the game, judging from their history, the production values will be top notch.
I am fairly certain that PAC12 network has no televising rights for NCAA playoffs. I could be wrong though
Saturday at 1PM. I get BYUTV and watched a few of their matches this season. Top notch is right, including knowledgeable announcers. It will be interesting to see who broadcasts what, very few programs have their own channel so I don't know if there's a precedent. Perhaps BYU can stream it if they can't televise it. I'm just surprised that we got the game here. BYU won a pretty good conference and their attendance is among the very highest in the country.
If the NCAA has television rights for the first round or two, I don't think they use it. The Pac-12 Network can be pretty slow in announcing future broadcasts, even near future sometimes, but I'll keep an eye on their listings and post anything I find out.
Glad to see it will be on a Saturday rather than a Friday afternoon. Congrats to the Buffs for earning the right to host a first round match. Third place in a conference that got a total of nine NCAA tourney bids. That's tremendous! Have to say though, that outside of last season's NCAA tourney win v BYU at a neutral site CU has struggled with them, to put in mildly.
From page 21 of the NCAA's Women's Soccer Championships, 2014-15 Host Operations (Preliminary Rounds) Manual: "The NCAA's broadcast partners (Turner, ESPN and IMG College) retain all rights to the television broadcast or cablecast, Internet or radio broadcast of NCAA championships. . . . It is the committee’s expectation that all preliminary rounds not televised shall be web streamed. All coverage must be equitable for all teams."
That's right, the first few rounds are webstreamed on NCAA's site, and you can literally open 12 windows at a time And No Work Shall Be Done This First Round Weekend. #anditwasso
Nice pull I remember being disappointed last year that Pac12 wasn't broadcasting. I suspect most of the first rounders will be just a stream (unless ESPNU decides to pick up the 1 seed games, which I doubt because all will be blowouts)
Colorado has a better ARPI than BYU. For games not involving seeded teams, the better ARPI team always has been the home team, unless it did not bid to be a host (the bids were due a while ago), which could include because they don't have a field that meets NCAA standards. Which means that, most likely, neither La Salle nor Arizona bid to host games, as they are traveling but have the better ARPIs in their pairings.
And the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week is Morgan Stanton !! http://www.cubuffs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=600&ATCLID=209759923
By the numbers Pac-12 Standings: 1. UCLA 2. Stanford 3. Colorado 4. USC 5. California 5. Washington State 5. Washington 8. Arizona State 9. Arizona 10. Oregon 11. Utah 12. Oregon State RPI: 1. Stanford 2. UCLA 15. Washington 20. Washington State 24. California 30. Arizona 33. Arizona State 36. Colorado 39. USC 47. BYU 72. Utah 74. Oregon 222. Oregon State NSCAA Coaches Poll: 1. UCLA 3. Stanford 15. BYU 20. California 23. Washington State 24. Washington 32. Arizona State 35. USC
Very cool !! Which is exactly what the weather will be. More like very cold. Good thing it's not today ... it's 3 degrees at 1PM. Saturday will probably "warm up" to the 20's. Pac-12 Arizona and Mountain will show CU-BYU, and the other Pac-12 networks will show San Diego State (Go Aztecs !!) at Cal. So when does the game start? I've read noon in several places, but the NCAA website bracket says 3PM Eastern which is 1 here, and the CU website schedule also says 1PM. The article in the CU website says noon. The BYU website schedule says noon, and one article says noon and the other says 1PM. I hope somebody figures this out by Saturday.
Just received the weekly Prentup Pass Supporters email from Coach Sanchez, which says that the game is at noon.