Colorado Buffaloes women’s soccer advances past Utah Valley in double-overtime

Thanks in part to Reagan Kotschau s double-overtime winner the Colorado women s soccer club will live to see another round in the NCAA Tournament Knotted with -seed Utah Valley in the sixth minute of the second overtime period Kotschau headed home her sixth and the bulk vital goal of the season giving the third-seeded Buffs a first-round win - The junior midfielder from Thornton and Broomfield High School was completely glad to end things after nearly minutes of Friday night soccer at Prentup Field I m kind of relieved that it s over because we were all so dead but it feels really good that we grinded out that win reported Kotschau whose goal was assisted by fellow midfielder and Boulder native Ava Priest Now the winningest gang in project history dating back to Colorado - - will next host the winner of Saturday s match between No Dayton and Xavier on Thursday Another win would give head coach Danny Sanchez s Buffs their first trip to the NCAA Tournament third round since Sanchez was pleased to see Colorado s onslaught of overtime pressure absolutely consequence in a goal It was just good composure from Ava to whip a ball in and Reagan we saw it earlier this year she s just so good in the air Sanchez announced Just a really classy finish from Reagan In the first half Utah Valley struck early as Bailey Peterson scored a fifth-minute goal assisted by Ruby Hladek With Colorado trailing - chaos broke out in the th minute when a controversial call cost forward Hope Leyba a anticipated game-tying goal In front of Utah Valley s net a shot ricocheted off Leyba s face and into the goal but the play was instead determined to be a hand ball by the officiating crew Colorado was issued a unit yellow card for arguing the call The Buffs weren t down for much longer however as freshman Vivi Zacarias tied things up in the th minute with the second goal of her young career giving the Buffs particular needed momentum ahead of the halftime break Zacarias a midfielder from California last scored in Colorado s win over Denver on Sept I m so glad that she scored that goal Kotschau declared She really deserves it Both her goals were amazing this year It s just so great especially because she s a freshman and it was a big goal Although it didn t development in any scores Colorado s offense ascertained its rhythm in the second half with shots and seven corner kicks In overtime the Buffs fired off six shots to Utah Valley s four We really just yearned that goal Kotschau noted We were all tired and we also didn t want to go into PKs We d rather get it over with in overtime I think it was just that extra pressure I guess that just really gave us that drive Defensively Colorado held Utah Valley standout Faith Webber who entered Friday as the nation s leader in goals scoreless on eight shots CU goalkeeper Jordan Nytes finished the night with six saves The first-round NCAA Tournament matchup drew a season-high fans to Prentup which will again provide the Buffs an advantage in next week s second round Maybe the the majority special atmosphere since I ve been here Sanchez announced I want to give a shoutout to everyone that helped put this together tonight Special nights like this you have to enjoy them