No. 25 Buffs Fall to No. 3 Cardinal

BOULDER – Shyra James' 11th goal of the season got the night started for Colorado, but the Buffaloes' upset bid over No. 3 Stanford came up short at Prentup Field. The Cardinal battled back with three unanswered goals and away with the 3-1 decision on Thursday.

"It was a great crowd tonight and we fed off that energy [to start]," head coach Danny Sanchez commented. "We got the early goal and I thought we maintained it. Having said that, I think we played well in spurts in the second half. Stanford is a good team, but it was a missed opportunity for us tonight."

The goal for James extended her scoring streak to seven consecutive matches and tied her career high.

Colorado (10-3-0, 2-2-0 Pac-12) was the aggressor early, directing early toward the Cardinal net in the opening 10 minutes. James got the Buff pointed in the right direction, scoring just the sixth goal allowed by Stanford this season.

Stanford (11-0-1, 4-0-0 Pac-12-) played from behind a majority of the first half but outshot the Buffs 14-4. The backbreaker came right before the half with the Carinal getting on the board twice in four minutes.

"The goal on the corner at the end of the first half was a bit of a backbreaker," Sanchez added. "If we go into half 1-1, I think maybe it's a different match. But credit Stanford. Anyone who watched this game can see their quality and we didn't produce enough in the final third to get anything out of this match."

How it happened
The Buffs got started fast, getting a shot within the first two minutes of the game from Juliauna Hayward that was barely nicked by a Stanford defender, keeping the ball from the net, but resulted in the first of CU's four first-half corner kicks.

After a short trip back into CU territory the Buffs earned another corner kick. Stanford cleared the ball out of danger, but Jade Babcock-Chi kept the ball inside the Stanford zone. Greer Maguire kept possession in the middle of the field and found Ava Priest on the right wing. Priest drove inside along the 18-yard line and slipped the ball to James in the 14th minute to give the Buffs a 1-0 lead.

"I thought Shyra played well tonight," Sanchez said. "She didn't get a lot of touches, but her hold-up play in the midfield was very good. She won every header and finished really the only chance that she had. I think we have to do a better job of finding her in the final third, but we're pleased with what she did tonight."

Stanford put the pressure on following the CU goal, outshooting the Buff 7-1 in the lead-up to the equalizing goal.

The final five minutes of the half did not go in Colorado's favor. The Cardinal got on the board in the 41st minute off a shot to the far corner by Jasmine Aikey and then came right back down and scored four minutes later off the foot of Joelle Jung in the 45th minute to carry the 2-1 lead into the half.

Colorado chased the lead the entire second half and conceded a third goal to Stanford's Maya Doms in the 62nd minute.

The Buffs kept pushing and throwing different personnel up top to cut into the Stanford advantage. CU almost got one back in the 75th minute when Lila Dere floated a shot off the crossbar.

"I thought that our backs were playing well," Sanchez expressed. "I thought that when we subbed players on in the last 20 minutes they did well. At the end of the day, sometimes you have to shake things up to see what happens."

Colorado netminder Jordan Nytes made six saves on the night.

Upcoming
The Buffs search for a split of the NoCal schools on Sunday, taking on California at 2 p.m.

Quotes
Head Coach Danny Sanchez
On the Leyba twins: "There is no moment too big for them. I know they're disappointed that we lost but there's never going to be a lack of commitment and effort from them for sure."

On the second-half effort: "They had a lot of balls we had to chase so a lot of players are chasing and once we win it the movement isn't as great because you're tired from trying to win it. We knew that was going to happen. I thought the last 20 minutes Stanford may have taken its foot off the gas, but I thought we played much better in that situation. It was too little too late."

Notes
Colorado falls to 0-14-1 all-time against Stanford…James' goal was just the seventh scored in 15 matches against the Cardinal…Her goal-scoring streak of seven games is the longest in a single season by a Buffalo…It is the second-longest streak in team history behind her 10-game streak from the end of 2021 and the start of 2022…Priest's assist was her fifth of the season and third in three games…The Buffs are now 0-2 this season against teams in the top 5 (No. 5 UCLA).

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Team Stats

Shyra James

Ava Priest

Greer Maguire

Juliauna Hayward

Players Mentioned

Jade Babcock-Chi

Lila Dere

Juliauna Hayward

Shyra James

Greer Maguire

Jordan Nytes

Ava Priest

Players Mentioned

Jade Babcock-Chi

Lila Dere

Juliauna Hayward

Shyra James

Greer Maguire

Jordan Nytes

Ava Priest