Menu
What's new
By:
Filters
AllBuffs | Unofficial fan site for the University of Colorado at Boulder Athletics programs

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • Prime Time. Prime Time. Its a new era for Colorado football. Consider signing up for a club membership! For $20/year, you can get access to all the special features at Allbuffs, including club member only forums, dark mode, avatars and best of all no ads ! But seriously, please sign up so that we can pay the bills. No one earns money here, and we can use your $20 to keep this hellhole running. You can sign up for a club membership by navigating to your account in the upper right and clicking on "Account Upgrades". Make it happen!

Match Thread- SOCCER ends regular season at Utah (Friday, 11/3/23, 2:00 PM MT) & NCAA Tourney Selection show (Monday, 2:00; ncaa.com)

AztecBuff

AztecBuff

Club Member
Club Member
Moderator
SOCCER (12-4-3 overall, 4-3-3 in Pac 12 play) finishes off its regular season as it fights for an NCAA tournament berth and higher conference finish*** as it travels to Salt Lake City to face off against a very solid Utah Ute team (6-7-6, 2-5-3) friday afternoon. (The Utes had their best match of the season last Friday as they, like the Buffs, upset ASU, in their case by a 2-0 score.)

***It seems like conference standings are almost immaterial to many nowadays, replaced with a successful season seemingly always being "NCAA tourney bid or bust", but I still love looking at them. With their great 6 point weekend against the desert schools, CU has guarenteed that they will finish in the top half of the conference in its final season, as they're in 6th place right now and have a 3 point gap on 7th place WSU with only 1 match remaining. In addition, they could still finish as high as 4th if they win Friday, with CU currently only 1 point behind Cal and ASU, and those schools pending rivalry matches (against Stanford and Arizona, respectively) sure to be physical and passionate chalenges for both.

In the latest official RPI report (https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/soccer-women/d1/ncaa-womens-soccer-rpi), the Buffs are at #55, while the Utes are #76 .

Also, from information I've found (see last week's match thread (https://www.allbuffs.com/threads/ma...9-18-asu-senior-day-sunday-1-30-pm-mt.156945/, post #35, for more info) an additional rating/ ranking, KPI (available for many sports through a query at https://faktorsports.com/), has been added as a secondary criteria this season in tournament selection. The Buffs are #43 and Utes #74 in KPI right now.))

The match is scheduled to be shown on the Pac 12 Network National and Mountain channels. (More detail and links provided near the bottom of this post.)

Go Buffs!!!

(Preview not available as I type this.)
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

More on the Utes -

Roster - https://utahutes.com/sports/womens-soccer/roster
Stats - https://utahutes.com/sports/womens-soccer/stats/2023
Schedule/ results for this season - https://utahutes.com/sports/womens-soccer/schedule
Their preview article for the match with the Buffs - Not available as I type this.
.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Media links:

Link to links to live stats for all CU matches - https://www.statbroadcast.com/events/schedule.php?live=1&gid=colo .
Direct link for this match - https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=472062.

Live Video - The match is scheduled to be shown live on the Pac 12 National and Mountain channels. For those whose Cable/ Satellite/ cord cutting subscription(s) include access to any Pac 12 Network channel, assume it will also be viewable at https://pac-12.com/womens-soccer/event/2023/11/03/colorado-utah .

Match notes (If blank, not available as I type this.): -
 
Looking at potential NCAA tournament selection, as I also noted in the last week match thread in post #35, the main bracketology I've found for women's soccer in past years is performed by a gentleman named Chris Henderson. (As I mentioned in last week's thread, I have no idea how accurate he's been in the past, but believe he's been doing it for MANY years, so if nothing else has a LOT of experience doing it which hopefully has continually improved his prediction accuracy.)

(Note- topdrawersoccer.com is another resource I've found in the past that does bracketology, but since I'm no longer a premium member I can't see that content.)

As I also posted in last week's thread, the 1st tweet below shows him as guesstimating the Buffs are currently 4th in the "Last teams out" category so NOT currently being selected. He also posted an updated bubble team analysis (available through the 2nd tweet below), and in that one, to summarize, he seems to think (in his notes colum) that if the Buffs win Friday they're probably in, while if they lose they probably have no chance of being selected. (If that is true (???), assume the Buff coaches are just telling the team that Friday is the 1st NCAA tourney match this year, and just bring your best.)




 
Last edited:
something interesting. CSU is in their title game and if they win they get the auto bid. If both get in I could see the NCAA setting up that match in the first round
 
Utes go up 0-1 in the 35th minute. (Not a great moment for the goalie, but there was also some confusion among the defenders.)
 
Oh boy - now 0-2 in the 45th minute after Utah converts a penalty kick

That is the score heading into halftime.

 
Last edited:
The Buffs have tied it up at 2 with goals within ~ 2 minutes of each other (in the 54th and 56th minutes)!

Willis and James with the goals. With her goal, James is now tied with Kornieck for 2nd most CU career goals.

Still over 32 minutes to go.
 
Highlight of the 2nd goal. (Still 2 all in the 68th minute.)



(Just had a play where James looks to be pushed down in the box while splitting between 2 defenders but somehow the call is made AGAINST her!?!)
 
OMG - Watched the entire match. The first Utah goal was weak, don't know how it got through a couple of Buffs and Nytes seemed to miss judge it. Utah's second goal was a PK. Thus the Buffs were down 2 - nil at the half.

The second half was all CU. They came out determined to score and dominated possession. Lawson Willis' goal was a left footed laser from an angle. Shyra's first of thee match and the equalizer came from another assist by Ava Priest who has become very good at getting to the end line and then pulling thee ball back to a runner. And the final goal, wow, the Buffs were able to counter and Shyra was calm on hitting the winner.

It's nice to score the go ahead goal with only about a minute in the match.

Kudos to CU for the right attitude and effort to win.

Still not sure this will be enough as Utah's RPI was 80 going into this match. Selection show is Monday afternoon.
 
MarkW said:
OMG - Watched the entire match. The first Utah goal was weak, don't know how it got through a couple of Buffs and Nytes seemed to miss judge it. Utah's second goal was a PK. Thus the Buffs were down 2 - nil at the half.

The second half was all CU. They came out determined to score and dominated possession. Lawson Willis' goal was a left footed laser from an angle. Shyra's first of thee match and the equalizer came from another assist by Ava Priest who has become very good at getting to the end line and then pulling thee ball back to a runner. And the final goal, wow, the Buffs were able to counter and Shyra was calm on hitting the winner.

It's nice to score the go ahead goal with only about a minute in the match.

Kudos to CU for the right attitude and effort to win.

Still not sure this will be enough as Utah's RPI was 80 going into this match. Selection show is Monday afternoon.
Click to expand...
I'm assuming Shyra is right footed and used her left due to the situation with great placement. Is that correct?
 
A couple notes regarding numbers for the Buffs:

1) The announcer had mentioned a couple times (and i now see it on the NCAA website) that the Buffs actually fell a couple places (to 59) in RPI heading into today's match, I assume due to some of their non-conference opponents losing. Per the below Chris Henderson tweet, the Buffs are up to 54 right after today's win.




2) In the other rating that I don't know whether or not will be important or not to the selection committee, the KPI (see original post above for more detail), the Buffs had moved up a smudge, to #42 (from #43 earlier in the week), heading into today's game. They do seem to be updating the rating daily, so assume CU's KPI rating AFTER reflecting today's win may be available tomorrow morning.
 
looks like CU will finish 4th in the pac 12 with both ASU and Cal losing. I dont know if that helps with the tourney
 
Results went almost perfectly (!!!) as the Pac 12 regular season ended tonight:

1) The 2 conference teams that were close to CU in RPI, WSU and Cal, both lost, so the Buffs increased their RPI advantage over them from yesterday and I don't believe either is even considered bubble team competition for the Buffs. (Per the Chris Henderson twitter account, Cal stayed at #66 after losing to highly rated and ranked Stanford, while WSU went from #60 to 64 after losing to the Huskies.)
2) In the Pac 12 standings, believe the Buffs will finish 4th after the 2 teams ahead of them by 1 point heading into tonights action, the aforementioned Golden Bears, as well as the Sun Devils, both lost tonight.
3) IF it's necessary to think of anything bad about tonight's results, ASU's loss was their 4th in a row, and raised their RPI, which was 32, all the way down to #44. This means that 1 of the 2 "best" wins for the Buffs,over ASU last week 4-0, is looking not as impressive as it did a week or so ago. (Mr. Henderson even mentioned in his tweet about ASU he thinks that loss might even make THEM a bubble team, but at least historically don't know if the committee would ever pick a team like the Buffs with an RPI ~10 places higher over the Sun Devils.)
 
See that Chris Henderson (https://twitter.com/chris_awk) has updated his bubble team worksheet (see below tweet), and he does say the Buff's situation is still "dicey", and that their RPI dropped a couple spots from what he previously had (From #54 to #56), so sounds like it's going to be a nervous Monday night tournament selection show for the team.
(Hope all goes well!, and obviously they've done all they can do the last couple weeks.)




(He does mention that KPI (and I assume official RPI?) won't be updated for at least a few hours, and he plans to create his (final?) mock field projection tomorrow afternoon.)
 
Last edited:
Media after today's win -

Article -




Direct link - https://cubuffs.com/news/2023/11/3/soccer-three-unanswered-goals-lift-buffs-over-utah.aspx

"
SALT LAKE CITY – It ain't over till it's over.

That was exactly the case for the Colorado Buffaloes in Friday afternoon's regular-season finale. Utah got two first-half goals and led for the first 55 minutes before the Buffs got on the comeback trail and scored three-second half goals, with the winner coming from Shyra James in the 89th minute, to secure the win at Ute Field.

Colorado (13-4-3, 5-3-3 Pac-12) entered the day with an RPI rating of 59 and on the bubble of the upcoming NCAA Tournament. Friday's win helps keep CU's postseason hopes afloat as the selection show approaches on Monday.

"We knew we had to get a win for the NCAA Tournament," head coach Danny Sanchez noted after the match. "Even when we were tied, we felt like we had to keep pressing to find the game-winner. There was never a moment that we felt comfortable in the second half. It would have been good to get that goal earlier, but sometimes you get that goal super later and it doesn't leave your opponent time to equalize. It couldn't have played out any better in the second half."

The win was the first for the Buffs when trailing by two or more goals since a double-overtime thriller against No. 14 USC in the COIVD season played out in the spring of 2021.

Senior Lawson Willis got the Buffs back on track with her first career goal to cut the Utah lead in half. James picked up goals No. 14 & 15 on the season to continue to add to her stellar season and career numbers. With two goals on Friday, James moved past Taylor Kornieck for second all-time in career scoring and became just the second CU player to hit 40 career goals. James now only trails Nikki Marshall and her 42 career goals.
...

Upcoming
The Buffs will learn their postseason fate during Monday's NCAA selection show. The show will be streamed on NCAA.com at 2 p.m. MT.

Notes
CU's 13 wins this season are the most since going 13-4-3 in 2018…It's just the seventh time CU has hit 13 wins in 28 seasons…With four points on Friday, James moved past Fran Munnelly (84) for third on the all-time points list with 86…James now has 32 points this season (15 G, 2 A) moving into second all-time in single-season points behind Nikki Marshall's 37 in the 2006 season…Nytes made two saves to record her 13th win of the season, marking the most wins by a CU keeper since Kate Scheele's 14 in 2014…Utah had just one shot attempt in the second half...Willis' first career goal came in her 70th career game…Willis became CU's 14th different goal scorer of the season and is the 17th different player to record a point this season…The team had nine points on the day (3 G, 3 A) which was good for its second-highest point total of the season along with nine at Oregon…CU also tied a season-high with nine corner kicks.

Quotes
Head coach Danny Sanchez
On the history of close games with Utah – "I think credit to Utah. They didn't have a lot to play for, but it's a good team. All you have to do is look at the results throughout the year. They played very well. I thought our depth really took over in the second half. Even though the first half was disappointing, our depth in the second half really took over. Especially, the last 15 minutes when we were pushing for the winner. I thought we would create some really good chances and fortunately for us, we got the one we needed."

On the second half – "Shyra gets that second goal and now we're tied. I think at that point it took the pressure off us. I thought the second half was some of the best soccer we've played all year. We just couldn't find that third goal but we kept competing."
"
___________________________________________________________________________________

Box score - https://cubuffs.com/sports/womens-soccer/stats/2023/utah/boxscore/16484

 
Since I'd already posted on here a few times (in posts #2, 20 & 23) about the Buffs' prospects to be selected to this year's NCAA Tournament, thought I'd also make this thread the one for us to report and comment on tourney news, with the selection show scheduled to be shown on a free live stream on ncaa.com starting at 2:00 PM MT this Monday (11/6).

Link to NCAA's info for the selection show - https://www.ncaa.com/live-updates/soccer-women/d1/live-updates-2023-di-womens-soccer-championship
_________________________________________________________________________________

Specifically regarding the Buffs, after all of yesterday's matches, the Buffs are #56 in RPI (https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/soccer-women/d1/ncaa-womens-soccer-rpi) and #40 in KPI (https://faktorsports.com/). As usual when I bother to look for both CU soccer and volleyball teams, certainly wish the Massey ratings were used by committees, as the Buffs are way up in #22 right now (per https://masseyratings.com/csocw/ncaa-d1/ratings) in Massey.

Edit - Did want to add that all of this post does not reflect final rankings or predictions, as there are still many matches (assume many of them conference tourney finals?) to be competed today and tomorrow in other conferences.

Unfortunately going to have to hope that Chris Henderson (who I've mentioned previously as being one of if not the only free bracketology analysts I can find for women's soccer) is off this year, as per the below tweet he's now lowered the Buffs, even after yesterday's win, to being #6 in "last teams out", actually worst than the #4 he had them at this past Tuesday. (Among other things I'm hanging my hopes on, don't know if anyone can know for sure how the selection committee might value the KPI ratings (which favor the Buffs) that have been added as a "secondary criteria" to this year's selection procedures.?.)

Of course, in ANY case, the team has done all they can for the season and no matter what is announced on Monday should be proud about a 4th place Pac 12 finish and some great individual match performances throughout non-conference and conference play that led to only 4 losses tfor the whole year.

 
Last edited:
I get it that RPI is huge, but I remember that they use to look at how you ended as part of the criteria. I would put in CU over ASU because of the they way they ended and CU finished higher in the conference. I have never been a fan of RPI being the determining factor of who gets in. Iowa who beat MSU just beat a top 5 team in Penn ST. Either way it goes it won't surprise me tbh. CSU lost so they won't make it and Utah state will be the MW team. They beat BYU this year
 
It's Tourney Selection Day, with the show scheduled to begin in leass than ~3-1/2 hours:

  • With all the regular season and conference tourney matches in the books, the Buffs moved up 1 In RPI, to #55, while they stayed at #40 in KPI.
  • In Chris Henderson's final bracketology (See below tweet for the link), he's moved the Buffs up to being the 3rd "last team out" (or after the "cut line" as he's calling it this time; improved from 6th). Not knowing Mr. Henderson's accuracy history, I'd say this mainly says to me that there is still a decent chance the Buffs get selected, as there always seems to be some surprises every season in ANYONE's bracketology in every sport.
  • Note- He's now even moved ASU (now #47 in RPI and #48 in KPI after their 4 match season-ending losing streak, including a 4-0 CU victory) down to 1st team out, which means he has the Pac 12 only getting 3 schools in, which overall just does NOT make sense to me given how good the conference is. (Massey (https://masseyratings.com/csocw/ncaa-d1/ratings?c=1) does have the Pac 12 as "only" being the 4th best rated conference this year, but it's VERY close, with only a .01 scoring difference between each of the top 4. So, the Pac is still very close (only .03, 8.18 to 8.15) behind the #1 conference, the Big 10, who he has getting NINE schools in, and who's co-conference regular season champion MSU the Buffs beat 2-0. As comparison, the Pac 12 is a full .10 above the #5 rated conference (the Buff's future Big 12) in Massey.)

 
seems like Chris is all about the RPI and that is not a good thing for cU. I do think the committee will look at other things but who knows. Nothing would surprise me except if CU got a top seed
 
YESSSS! - The Buffs are the 1st announced at-large team, and are going to face regional #8 seed Texas A & M Texas Tech (EDIT - initially entered the wrong Texas team) in 1st round action. (The winner will probably be going to #1 ranked Florida State in the 2nd round.)
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top