A day after addressing the media at Colorado's 71st annual fall sports media day, the Colorado Buffaloes (2023: 13-5-3, 5-3-3 Pac-12) won a fun exhibition match, 4-3, against the North Texas Mean Green (2023: 8-5-3, 2-4-3 Conference USA).
Played at Prentup Field, the high-scoring, Saturday night affair was a perfect buffer from the offseason to the regular season. The game was exciting and competitive, taking on a back-and-forth nature in front of the Colorado faithful. Yet, both teams were still able to experiment with rotations and schematics.
The first goal came in the 18th minute when CU’s fifth-year senior forward Shyra James found sophomore forward Hope Leyba on the right side of the box, where Leyba stuck a shot into the back of the net and gave the Buffs a 1-0 lead.
North Texas responded as they did the whole night and in their exhibition match against the Colorado State Rams two days prior. Sophomore forward Alexis Miller, who scored the equalizing goal to force a 2-2 draw against CSU, was the first of three to score an equalizing goal against CU, tying the game at one apiece in the 31st minute.
Heading into the break, the Buffs had reclaimed the lead, 2-1, thanks to redshirt freshman forward Sami Fisher. Just outside the box and a few feet from where Leyba scored, Fisher launched a left-footed shot that tipped off the gloves of the Mean Green’s graduate student goalkeeper Maddie Ogden. It was the first goal of Fisher’s collegiate career with her and four other Buffs making their CU debuts.
When the second half kicked off, an avalanche of goals ensued. By the 51st minute, North Texas’ freshman forward Claire Niedermeier and Colorado’s junior forward Josie Master had exchanged goals. Master’s was the first goal of her Colorado career, scoring from the left side of the box after beating her opponent.
The 68th minute saw another equalizer from the Mean Green, though this was the last. Junior forward Summer Brown got fouled in the box, warranting a penalty shot. North Texas sent its graduate student defender and captain Rachel Roebuck to take the shot. Using her right boot, she made it a 3-3 game.
While the anticipation built, Hope’s twin sister Faith, playing defense, set up fellow sophomore defender Ava Priest for the winning goal in the 77th minute. Originally, it looked like an opportunity for a goal had passed, the ball rolling left of the goal and about to go out of bounds. With the effort that the Leyba twins always play with, Faith slid to save the ball and popped it up over Ogden for an awaiting Priest.
From there, the Buffs cruised to a 4-3 victory.
CU head coach Danny Sanchez played 22 of his 24 rostered players, including all five incomers and all three goalies. The Buffs never trailed and responded to every hit they took before securing the win. North Texas did outshoot Colorado 16-12, a lopsided 12-5 in the second half, and forced the game to be competitive. But, the resilience of an entire roster working together toward victory showed a confident, more polished unit that began to form at the end of last season.
The match was a great step forward for a team that expressed its high ambition at the fall sports media day. Sanchez and his three captains, second-time captain Rachel Rosen (graduate student defender) and first-time captains Juliauna Hayward (junior midfielder) and Jordan Nytes (junior goalkeeper), all expressed their realistic expectations for a Big 12 championship. The team ranked No. 4 in the Big 12’s preseason coaches poll. James, Nytes and Faith Leyba were named preseason all-conference.
The Buffs will look to ride the momentum of the exhibition win into its season opener against the Marquette Golden Eagles (2023: 5-10-4, 2-6-2 Big East) at Prentup Field. The game will kick off on Thursday at 7 p.m. MT, broadcast on ESPN+.
Cover Photo by Remi Krupinski/Sko Buffs Sports
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