The team advanced beyond the 1st round for the 1st time in the program's young history by defeating Jacksonville on Friday, so today faces off against the host #6 Florida Gators in Gainesville at noon local time/ 10:00 AM MT. (Weather.com forecast guesstimating 80 degrees and 52% humidity at noon, 86 degrees and 43% humidity by 1:00, so hope the Buffs stay hydrated.)
As noted in the Buffzone article quoted below, the Buffs fell to Florida 9-16 earlier (2nd game of the year) this season. In that one, the Buffs were within one (8-9) with 16:21 left before Florida (obviously) dominated late, so definitely one of those "it was closer than it appears" (from the scoreboard) type of battles.
Go Buffs!!!
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Nice Buffzone.com (Pat Rooney) preview -
Direct link - http://www.buffzone.com/lacrosse/ci_31872906/sweet-16-berth-another-big-first-cu-womens
Some things from that on the Gators (as well as list of Buff stat leaders) -
"...
LEADERS: Colorado — Goals: Darby Kiernan 68; Assists: Kiernan 30; Points: Kiernan 98; Goalie: Julia Lisella, 9.11 goals-against average, .507 save percentage. Florida — Goals: Lindsey Ronbeck 61; Assists: Shannon Kavanagh 25; Points: Ronbeck and Shayna Pirreca, 76; Goalie: Haley Hicklen 10.06 goals-against average, .486 save percentage.
...
The Buffs also played at Florida on Feb. 11 in the second game of the season, suffering a 16-9 loss. CU's new schedule format in the first year of the Pac-12's women's lacrosse league offered plenty of chances for the Buffs to prepare for a repeat opponent this season. CU went 5-0 in the second half of the conference schedule, adding a third win against Oregon in the league tourney before falling to Stanford in the teams' third match of the year in the league title game.
The host Gators were one of six teams to receive first-round byes, and the Buffs are coming off an exciting but physically taxing first-round win. After allowing a season-most 18 goals against Jacksonville, Elliott is hopeful CU's defense will rebound in a match that might turn out to be the opposite of the offensive battle the Buffs survived in the first round.
Even after the defensive showing against Jacksonville, the Buffs remain 17th in the nation in scoring defense at 9.74 goals allowed per game. Florida ranks 15th at 9.63. Elliott said the Buffs would go through only a light walk-though on Saturday while concentrating heavily on video work and physical recovery.
"I think Florida is an amazing team," Elliott said. "In some ways they're similar to Jacksonville in terms of they go hard, they transition, they're aggressive, they dodge hard. We know it's a tough challenge for us. I think both ends of the field are really solid and they have seven players on each end that can play and can compete. They're tough to stop.
"We know it's a tough challenge for us. We'll start preparing (Friday) night for that and start resting up, because we know it's going to take everything we have. They're a lot better defensively than the first time we played them. They have strong one-on-one defenders that make you work for everything all over the field. So it's going to be a battle."
...
"
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Links to live video stream (Florida Youtube channel) and live stats -
As noted in the Buffzone article quoted below, the Buffs fell to Florida 9-16 earlier (2nd game of the year) this season. In that one, the Buffs were within one (8-9) with 16:21 left before Florida (obviously) dominated late, so definitely one of those "it was closer than it appears" (from the scoreboard) type of battles.
Go Buffs!!!
___________________________________________________________________
Nice Buffzone.com (Pat Rooney) preview -
Direct link - http://www.buffzone.com/lacrosse/ci_31872906/sweet-16-berth-another-big-first-cu-womens
Some things from that on the Gators (as well as list of Buff stat leaders) -
"...
LEADERS: Colorado — Goals: Darby Kiernan 68; Assists: Kiernan 30; Points: Kiernan 98; Goalie: Julia Lisella, 9.11 goals-against average, .507 save percentage. Florida — Goals: Lindsey Ronbeck 61; Assists: Shannon Kavanagh 25; Points: Ronbeck and Shayna Pirreca, 76; Goalie: Haley Hicklen 10.06 goals-against average, .486 save percentage.
...
The Buffs also played at Florida on Feb. 11 in the second game of the season, suffering a 16-9 loss. CU's new schedule format in the first year of the Pac-12's women's lacrosse league offered plenty of chances for the Buffs to prepare for a repeat opponent this season. CU went 5-0 in the second half of the conference schedule, adding a third win against Oregon in the league tourney before falling to Stanford in the teams' third match of the year in the league title game.
The host Gators were one of six teams to receive first-round byes, and the Buffs are coming off an exciting but physically taxing first-round win. After allowing a season-most 18 goals against Jacksonville, Elliott is hopeful CU's defense will rebound in a match that might turn out to be the opposite of the offensive battle the Buffs survived in the first round.
Even after the defensive showing against Jacksonville, the Buffs remain 17th in the nation in scoring defense at 9.74 goals allowed per game. Florida ranks 15th at 9.63. Elliott said the Buffs would go through only a light walk-though on Saturday while concentrating heavily on video work and physical recovery.
"I think Florida is an amazing team," Elliott said. "In some ways they're similar to Jacksonville in terms of they go hard, they transition, they're aggressive, they dodge hard. We know it's a tough challenge for us. I think both ends of the field are really solid and they have seven players on each end that can play and can compete. They're tough to stop.
"We know it's a tough challenge for us. We'll start preparing (Friday) night for that and start resting up, because we know it's going to take everything we have. They're a lot better defensively than the first time we played them. They have strong one-on-one defenders that make you work for everything all over the field. So it's going to be a battle."
...
"
_____________________________________________________________________
Links to live video stream (Florida Youtube channel) and live stats -
