The women’s soccer team beat Colorado College and will advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Photo courtesy DU Athletics
The University of Denver women’s soccer team got a goal in the first half and two more in the second to upend Colorado College 3-1 in the NCAA Tournament First Round on Saturday afternoon at CIBER Field at the University of Denver Soccer Stadium. DU’s victory is the Pioneers second NCAA Tournament win in program history.
In a match that saw a large amount of hail begin to fall as referee Ignacio Jaimes blew his opening whistle, senior forward Kaitlin Bast became the third Pioneer in school history to join the 100-point club, pacing the Pioneers with two goals and an assist. Junior forward Kristen Hamilton scored her team-leading 14th goal in the match as well.
“When we start games strong, and start halves strong it makes an impression on our team, and makes an impression on our opponent,” head coach Jeff Hooker says. “We switched things up a bit formation-wise when we came out in the second half, a little bit because of the weather. We didn’t want to be too crazy and too aggressive. I thought our energy was really, really good.”
The Pioneers will travel to Palo Alto, Calif., to take on No. 4 Maryland at 5:30 p.m. MST Friday. The winner of the second round match will take on the winner of Stanford vs. Santa Clara at 2 p.m. MST Sunday.
Read more about the game on the athletics website.