It likely was a few nerve-racking days for the Colorado women’s soccer team. Monday’s news brought a huge, collective sigh of relief.
Thanks in large part to wins in their final three games, the Buffaloes received an at-large bid to the 64-team NCAA Tournament, earning a first-round date at Texas A&M on Friday at 6 p.m. MT. The winner will play either Moorhead State or Florida State, which is one of the four No. 1 seeds.
It is the 13th tourney bid for the CU program and the seventh in 12 seasons under head coach Danny Sanchez. The Buffs’ last tournament appearance was in the pandemic-delayed 2020 season (played in early 2021) when CU lost in the first round against South Alabama.
After suffering a 1-0 loss at Washington State on Oct. 19 and settling for a draw at Washington two days later, the Buffs were on the outside of the tournament picture with a 2-3-3 mark in the Pac-12. But needing three wins in the final three games, the Buffs got the job done, beginning the run with shutout victories against Arizona and Arizona State in the final two home games.
Those wins pushed CU to a more manageable No. 59 in the RPI, but the Buffs’ NCAA tourney hopes were pushed to the brink after falling behind 2-0 in the first half of the regular season finale on Friday at Utah. But the Buffs rallied with three goals in the second half, with two off the foot of senior Shyra James, who scored the winner in the 89th minute.
“We told the team right after the Washington game that to get into the tournament we would have to win three games,” Sanchez said in a release. “We knew the challenges and the team earned the right to get into the tournament. They rose to that challenge and now it’s on to the next phase of the season. Everybody is 0-0 and it’s a winner-or-go-home scenario, which we’ve been dealing with for the last few weeks.”
With at least one more game to play, James will get an opportunity to become the program’s all-time leading scorer. Her late flurry at Utah left James at No. 2 in goals scored with 40, behind Nikki Marshall’s 42. James is third in points with 86, behind Marshall’s 93 and Taylor Kornieck’s 102.
The Buffs (13-4-3, 5-3-3 Pac-12) and Texas A&M haven’t met since CU’s final Big 12 appearance before moving to the Pac-12. The teams played to a scoreless draw in the first game of the Big 12 tournament on Nov. 3, 2010, with the Aggies ultimately advancing on penalty kicks.
Texas A&M (9-7-4) went 4-3-3 in the SEC and advanced to the conference semifinals before losing to eventual tournament champ Georgia in the semifinals. The Aggies and Buffs played only one common foe in Washington State, which Texas A&M defeated 3-2 at home on Aug. 20.
Florida State, BYU, Clemson and Pac-12 champion UCLA earned the four No. 1 seeds, with Stanford, USC, Arizona State and the Buffs also landing bids out of the Pac-12.
“We couldn’t be more excited,” Sanchez said. “Like I said to the team, we did all we could to get results at the end of the year. We really felt we deserved this opportunity. Fortunately for us, the committee saw the body of our work. To see our name pop up early, really took a lot of pressure off and it was a great moment for the team.”