Both No. 18 Penn State and No. 20 Colorado recorded significant wins Friday, upsetting No. 11 Virginia 22-13 and No. 14 USC 10-7, respectively.
The Buffs avenged their one-goal overtime loss to the Trojans on March 16 and rebounded from its 10-8 loss at Denver last week.
"USC is obviously a great team and a team we have struggled with in the past,” Colorado coach Ann Elliott said on the Pac-12 matchup. “It is a huge conference game for us. We are looking to continue to compete and finish strong down the stretch this year in the second half. It is a huge win for us."
Colorado opened the snowy game with a 4-0 lead less than 10 minutes in thanks to a hat trick from Darby Kiernan. USC got on the board at the 12:44 mark on Kerrigan Miller’s goal, but the Buffs responded with a three-goal run to enter halftime with a 7-1 advantage.
The Trojans started the second half with a four-goal spurt with two goals apiece from Kaeli Huff and Kerrigan Miller to bring the score within two.
Colorado had one last three-goal run, with two more coming Kiernan, to go up by five. USC had two more goals in the final 10:54, but the Buffs held on for the three-goal victory on their snow-covered home field.
Kiernan tied her career high with eight points on five goals and three assists.
A couple hours later, the Nittany Lions dominated the Cavaliers for the nine-goal upset.
Senior Katie O’Donnell recorded a career-high eight points in the win, becoming the 14th player in Penn State history to reach the 200-point mark.
Virginia scored the first two goals of the game in the first two minutes, but the Nittany Lions quickly took the lead with a four-goal run, which was followed by a six-goal spurt six minutes later to go up 11-4 at the 6:34 mark in the first half.
With a six-goal advantage for Penn State at the break, Virginia aimed to make a comeback playing a tighter 9-7 second half.
Avery Shoemaker again scored the first goal of the period for the Cavaliers, but Penn State had another three-goal run to lead 17-8 with 21 minutes remaining.
The final 20:39 minutes saw an even 5-5 battle, with Shoemaker netting two more scores in the final five minutes, but the Nittany Lions’ cushion was too much to recover from.
The win marked the third straight for Penn State since falling to Princeton on March 19.