Colorado’s season comes to bitter end in double-overtime contest

Maddie Shoup fires a shot past a Northwestern defender (Photo via CUBuffsWLax on X).

The No. 8-seeded Colorado Buffaloes (16-4, 4-1 Big 12) fell to the No.1-seeded Northwestern Wildcats (17-3, 7-1 Big Ten), 13-12 in a double overtime game in Evanston, Illinois. 

Colorado’s 2026 season started against Northwestern, where it shook up the Wildcasts with a 10-9 come-from-behind upset. The game on Thursday wrote a different story for the Buffaloes. 

Senior attacker Maddie Shoup led CU with a career-high seven points, including four goals and three assists. Junior attacker Teagan Ryan also had four goals on the afternoon. Despite the loss, sophomore goalkeeper Elena Oh had 11 saves, one away from her career high, including four in overtime play. 

In the tight matchup, possession was key for both teams. Northwestern dominated the draw controls 20-7, including both overtime draws, allowing them to pull away from Colorado in the end.  

"I'm proud of my team for the fight," said head coach Ann Elliott Whidden. "There were times we could have given up or not come out confident, and I'm proud of our ability to even get the game into overtime there. We were just one play short."

The Wildcats scored the first goal of the afternoon. Colorado answered with back-to-back goals by Shoup and Ryan. Northwestern’s senior attacker Madison Taylor tied it back up with a goal of her own.  Ryan and Shoup powered another two-goal run for the Buffaloes. Northwestern snuck another goal in, but Ryan answered once again to put CU up 5-3 at the end of the first quarter. 

The Wildcats started the second quarter with back-to-back goals of their own by Taylor and senior attacker Maddie Epke. Shoup assisted on back-to-back goals by Ryan and freshman attacker Rowan Edson to keep a two-point lead for the Buffs. Northwestern scored once again, but senior attacker Rachael Kennedy snuck one into the net in the last five seconds of the quarter to give the Buffaloes an 8-6 lead heading into halftime. 

At the start of the third quarter, Shoup scored a hat trick off a free position attempt. However, Northwestern went on a two-goal run, including a hat trick for Taylor. Junior midfielder Averi Gardner snuck the ball into the net. The Wildcats answered with back-to-back goals, including a free position shot to tie up the game 10-10 at the end of the third quarter. 

Colorado scored in the beginning of the fourth quarter with a free position shot by junior attacker Jaimey Hill. Northwestern then got a free position goal of its own, followed by another goal from Taylor to give the Wildcats their first lead since the first few minutes of the game, 12-11.  With the season on the line, Shoup dove inside and made a spin move to nail one home in the final four seconds of the quarter to send the game into overtime.   

The Wildcats won the opening draw of overtime and retained possession for three of the five minutes. However, two desperate saves from Oh extended the game into double overtime. 

Northwestern won the draw once again at the start of double overtime. Colorado was able to turn the Wildcats over quickly, but the favor was quickly returned. Oh saved two shots, but Northwestern continued to retain possession.

The Wildcasts called game with a free position goal, sending them to the final four and ending the Buffaloes’ season.