Colorado made the most of its second chance with a 9-8 win over USC in Los Angeles on Friday.
The No. 20 Buffaloes (7-5, 6-1 Pac-12) won for the first time ever at No. 16 USC (13-2, 8-1) and handed the Pac-12 frontrunner their first conference loss of the season. Colorado now sits in second place.
“We’re doing our best to continue to be in the hunt,” said Colorado coach Ann Elliott Whidden. “Had we not been successful on Friday and Sunday, it wouldn’t even be a part of the conversation. We’d be out of the hunt. We’re happy to be where we are and we know we have a lot of hard work in front of us to try to maintain that.”
In the Pac-12 everyone gets a second chance.
Pac-12 teams play each other home and away during the season to ensure that they get enough games and don’t have to fly cross country so much. They also are in a routine of playing twice per weekend on most Pac-12 weekends. Colorado followed up its win over USC on Friday with a less inspired but just as important 13-7 win over Arizona State.
“We like it,” Whidden said. “We’re excited to play great teams and play them twice. Friday/Sunday, we’re used to that. As you get down the stretch in terms of championship play — and that’s what everyone wants to do is win a championship whether it’s conference or NCAA — and you have to be able to play in that situation where you have limited time and you have to get yourselves ready to play on Sunday against a great opponent. We like that preparation. In terms of playing teams twice in a season, it’s challenging in a good way.”
Playing each other twice in the season has brought familiarity between teams and helped to spur rivalries.
“I do think there’s something to be said about raising the level of competition among ourselves to create better competition once we start going outside the Pac-12,” said Stanford coach Amy Bokker. “Specifically, our rivalries with USC and Colorado, it makes for competitive, really physical, a lot of pressure type of games and that’s what you want to be ready for postseason. I really enjoy it. I’ve heard from my colleagues on the East Coast, ‘I can’t believe you guys are doing that,’ but I think it’s been a real positive for our conference overall.”
Stanford is looking forward to its second chance at Colorado this Friday. The Cardinal lost when they hosted Colorado, 20-13, back on March 8.
“We were very disappointed with that the first time we played Colorado,” Bokker said. “It’s the most goals we’ve given up all year. So we really want to tighten things up from a defensive perspective and make sure we’re finishing our chances. 8-meters was a big story. I think they were 7-for-10 and we were like 2-for-10 so we want to make an adjustment and be better there.”
Bokker likes the idea of having a second chance to see how her team can improve. Until Colorado beat USC, it was Stanford that had given USC the best games of the Pac-12 season in a pair of one-goal losses.
“We had gone down there and it was a really exciting one-goal game and my immediate reaction was wanting to play them again right away,” Bokker said. “We had the opportunity to do that right away the next weekend. Unfortunately, it ended the same way, but I think that’s the good thing about it — when you have these games and if it didn’t go the way you wanted it to, you have an opportunity to get out there and pretty quickly get right back after that same team.”
Colorado saw a big change from its 11-5 loss to USC in Boulder, Colo., in the rematch. Colorado held USC to two goals in the first half, the Women of Troy’s lowest output in a half this year.
“Defensively we’ve been growing a lot,” Whidden said. “Finally we had people playing the same position, doing the same stuff for us which hasn’t been the case. We had to move people all around a little bit. Going into that game, we had consistency in practice and I thought our players were really focused. I thought they did a good job of understanding the scouting report and Julia [Lisella] did a good job in net and we were able to force some tough shots and come up with some big plays.”
Colorado’s adjustments for its second meetings paid off. Pac-12 rematches are chances to gauge improvement and development.
“I think you have to be different,” Whidden said. “You can’t do the same things the second time out whether you won or lost because everyone prepares and starts to know each other pretty well. You start to know what you’re made of and challenge yourself as a staff and as players to be better than the last time out. It’s been a neat experience for us and we like it.
“We definitely make a good amount of changes here and there and we try to surprise people and do something a little differently so when they’re preparing you can throw something in a little different at them to get that advantage, especially at the start of the game.”
Pac-12 teams have also grown accustomed to preparing for the quick weekend turnaround between games only two days apart.
“We scout two days out typically,” Bokker noted. “But when we have a Friday/Sunday we do scout for the Sunday game pre-practice Saturday.”
Colorado had plenty of motivation and opportunity available at USC. The Buffaloes have had their struggles outside of conference that could hurt an at-large NCAA tournament bid chance, but handing then-No. 12 USC its first loss in the Pac-12 bumped them back into the Top 20.
“We don’t have much room for error and that’s the only thing we can control is the games we have in April and the games we have in conference,” Whidden said. “USC has done their job. They have two wins over Stanford and only one conference game left and we have a lot. We knew it was a weekend where we had to be successful. The work for us is far from over.”
With wins in their final three games, Colorado will be tied at the top of the Pac-12 standings with USC, something that would not have happened without a second chance.