Colorado Proved to Itself What It's Capable of By Beating Northwestern

Last season, Colorado had its worst record in program history.

In the Buffaloes’ first opportunity to cleanse their palate of that 8-8 season, Colorado secured a thrilling 10-9 victory at No. 2 Northwestern on Monday — by far the team’s most monumental win in its 12-plus-year history.

The Buffs’ win could end up being the biggest upset of the entire year — and it’s only February.

Senior attacker Maddie Shoup led the way with five goals, including the go-ahead score with 4:25 remaining. Goalie Elena Oh made two doorstep saves within the last 25 seconds to secure the historic win.

“It’s awesome,” Shoup said. “We’ve been celebrating a lot and just been really happy for each other. We’ve set out to train for this and practice for this game for weeks, so to see it all come together and win that game is awesome.”

Buffs head coach Ann Elliott Whidden said a win like this has been building over the past three years for her program.

“I think every year we’ve faced some different challenges with injuries and different things, and we’ve fallen a little short,” she said. “But this group has continued to believe and continued to work and is highly motivated.”

Whidden, who graduated from Northwestern in 2007, said she added this year’s matchup against the Wildcats to the schedule late in the offseason.

“I needed to add a game, and we were fortunate for Kelly [Amonte Hiller] to make it work for us,” Whidden said. “We knew it was kind of a win-win for us. We were going to go in and play a great opponent, no matter the result. We were going to get prepared, we were going to be challenged, and we were going to learn more about ourselves.”

If you told Whidden that her team would be neck-and-neck with Northwestern in the final minute, then she would have taken that scenario in a heartbeat.

“The experience is great,” she said. “Hopefully it builds confidence and helps them understand that at the end of the day, you just have to find a way. It surely wasn’t a pretty last minute for us, but our players stepped up and found a way to make the plays.”

The sides have faced each other in each of the past three seasons, with the Wildcats dominating the Buffaloes 20-5 last year. Shoup said she rewatched last year’s defeat as part of her film study and was reminded that they were capable of “so much more.”

“We had a little bit of a chip on our shoulder when we played in that game, and it really showed our capabilities all around,” Shoup said. “This year we came into it as, ‘This is our year, we’re going to go out there and prove a point.’”

That they did.

Shoup said Colorado needed to be more complementary against Northwestern. Last season, they’d play strong defense one week but lack on the offensive end. Score a lot of goals next, but wouldn’t be tough enough in the middle of the field.

On Monday, Colorado played together. The Buffs outgained the Wildcats 20-12 in the ground ball battle, converted on three extra-player opportunities and only turned the ball over 10 times to Northwestern’s 18.

“Our message to the team was just to focus on ourselves and go out there and believe in ourselves,” Whidden said. “Do what we believe we do well and we’ll see where we end up.”

The last time Colorado clinched a top-10 victory was against No. 6 Penn State in 2017, which was also the last and only season it had beaten Northwestern. Similarly to Monday, Colorado’s win was a narrow one-goal victory in a season opener.

The next step for the Buffs might be even harder than Monday’s victory — playing in the shadow of it. Without diminishing their accomplishment, Whidden told her team that they won’t be excited about this win anymore if they go 1-14.

“We live in a different world from the last time our team had this type of success in 2017 [or] 2018,” Whidden said. “So I think the amount of things they get, the amount of social media or different stuff … My message to them is that it’s important to stay focused on ourselves. We didn’t play that game for any type of ranking. We played it for ourselves and to prove to ourselves what we’re capable of doing.”

Shoup didn’t sugarcoat the disappointments of the Buffs’ last three seasons. She mentioned falling in the Pac-12 championship game in back-to-back seasons in 2023 and 2024 before losing to Arizona State in the Big 12 semifinals last year.

“I think this year, we carried that all,” Shoup said. “Our parents and our fans are already such a big help and cheer us on wherever we are, whatever team we face, but I think a win like that will really help us in that direction.”

Whidden also mentioned how the momentum of the Buffs’ historic upset could carry on and off the field.

“Hopefully, this is a great, exciting moment,” Whidden said. “I think lacrosse in Colorado is growing and it’s exciting to continue to understand that lacrosse can be played anywhere and can be competitive.”