DU Women’s Soccer faced CU Boulder Saturday night at the University of Denver Soccer Field in the Colorado Cup Finale, losing to the Buffs, 6-1. DU faced a rough start when within the first two minutes of the game CU’s Tatum Barton stole a goal from the top of the box, past DU’s freshman goalie, Ali Tobey (Colorado Springs, Colo.).
Tobey made her first start Saturday night as sophomore goalie Brittany Wilson (Littleton, Colo.) served her one-match suspension from her red card on Sunday against Gonzaga.
Barton scored again in the second half at the 47th minute, followed by a goal by teammate, Taylor Koeneik, fourteen seconds later, making the score 3-0 in favor of the Buffs. The two second half goals scored by the Buffs within 14 seconds of each other tie for 15th fastest consecutive goals scored in NCAA history.
DU rallied back in the 52nd minute when sophomore midfielder Hannah Adler (Oak Park, Calif.) scored her fifth goal of the 2017 season, resulting in a 3-1 score in favor of the Buffs. But the DU glory was short lived, when CU answered Adler’s goal with three of their own by Joss Orejel, Katie Joella and Camila Shykma, resulting in the 6-1 final score.
DU Women’s Soccer faces adversity as they lost to Gonzaga 2-1 last Sunday Sept. 10. They have lost their past four games, to CSU Bakersfield 2-1, to San Diego 3-1, to Gonzaga 2-1 and then Saturday to the Buffs 6-1.
In DU’s game against Gonzaga, they face a serious challenge when their goalkeeper was sent off the field for denial of an obvious goal scoring opportunity in the 53rd minute.
“An unfortunate decision went against us today, but I give credit to our players for fighting through that,” head coach Jeff Hooker said. “Anytime you lose your goalkeeper, especially in the manner we did today, it’s going to make things difficult. I thought for the most part today we played very disciplined, they just broke us down on the second goal, and credit Gonzaga, they took advantage and scored.”
Tobey played her first collegiate minutes when she came in for the red-carded Wilson, and faced a penalty kick right away. Tobey made the right call, and deflected the kick, proving herself worthy of the goalie position. But the game was not completely scoreless, and as both teams played 10v10 due to goal violations, the Zags took the win 2-1, continuing the DU losing streak.
DU Women’s soccer beat Cal. State Fullerton on Monday, Sept. 18 on the University of Denver Soccer Field, 3-2. Then they hit the road to play Cal. Poly on Thursday, Sept. 21 and U.C. Santa Barbara on Sunday, Sept. 24.
