Rams battle Colorado to scoreless draw in Sunday road match

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Sep 14

12:00 p.m.

Women's Soccer

at Denver

Sep 19

6:00 p.m.

Women's Soccer

at Omaha

Sep 25

7:00 p.m.

Women's Soccer

at Utah State

Sep 28

12:00 p.m.

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at Boise State

Oct 5

12:00 p.m.

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vs UNLV

BOULDER, Colo. – The Colorado State women's soccer team came away with a draw for the second straight match to begin the 2018 season, battling the Colorado Buffaloes to a scoreless deadlock in Colorado Cup action on Sunday from CU's Prentup Field.

Colorado State redshirt junior goalkeeper Hunter Peifer made 10 saves on Sunday. She denied the Buffaloes twice in the first half, but neither of those stops was impactful as her saves in the remainder of the match. In the 48th minute, a CSU turnover allowed CU's Megan Massey to dribble into the penalty area, but she was stopped by the Rams' keeper on a high shot in a one-on-one situation. Peifer came up with another particularly impactful save that half in the 83rd minute, making a diving fingertips save on a right-to-left drive across the goal mouth from the Buffaloes' Tatum Barton.

Offensively, CSU's best chance came in the 60h minute, as sophomore forward Ally Murphy-Pauletto dribbled into point-blank range on CU keeper Jalen Thompkins. Murphy-Pauletto, dribbling to her right, fired near side, but Thompkins made a reflex save to snuff out the Rams' scoring opportunity. Senior forward Hannah Gerdin also generated a handful of chances for CSU, pacing the Rams in shots (three) and shots on goal (two).

The biggest save on Sunday and one of the plays of the match was made by neither goalkeeper from either team, but by CSU senior defender Lexi Swenson in the 96th minute. CU's Marty Puketapu, the team's leading goal scorer in 2017, had beaten Peifer on her potential golden goal in extra time, but Swenson was positioned in the center of the goal mouth and cleared the ball off the line to preserve the scoreless deadlock.

STAT OF THE MATCH
Sunday marked the first time that Colorado State came away with a result in a match played at Colorado. The Rams had lost their previous two true road matches played in Boulder.

IN THEIR WORDS
Colorado State head coach Bill Hempen
"We're really proud of our team. To come into a place like this and really battle to the end – we were pushed, but we pushed back – it says a lot about our players and it's a good place for us to be. Lexi (Swenson) cleared one off the line there at the end to save it for us for sure, but our players play through everything and today she was one of the players that represented that. That was a moment where she could've just let the goal happen, but she didn't. Those are the simple things that you take away from this."

NOTES

In five matches that Colorado State has played against Colorado, three have resulted in draws. Each of those draws have come in three of the two teams' last four meetings.
Redshirt junior goalkeeper Hunter Peifer's 10 saves rank as the second-most in a single match in program history. She also owns the record, making 11 stops at SIUE last season (Sept. 8, 2017).
Five players saw the pitch for all 110 minutes on Sunday, including Peifer, junior defender Halley Havlicek, junior midfielder Caeley Lordemann, freshman midfielder Samantha Studt and senior defender Lexi Swenson.
Havlicek, Lordemann, Peifer and Swenson each also played all 110 minutes in the Rams' draw at Denver.

UP NEXT
The Colorado State women's soccer team plays Northern Colorado in its home opener on Thursday. Kickoff is slated for 4 p.m. MT from CSU Soccer Field.

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