Breaking the frustrating scoring slump didn’t exactly open the floodgates for the Colorado women’s soccer team.

But the drought-busting performance was more than enough to keep the Buffaloes’ season alive.

Hope Leyba and Ava Priest scored highlight-reel goals in the second half, allowing the Buffs to rally for a 2-1 victory against Utah on Wednesday in the first round of the Big 12 Conference tournament at CPKC Stadium in Kansas City, Mo.

The victory ended a six-game winless streak for the Buffs, who had been shut out in their previous four games. Ninth-seeded CU (11-3-5) advances to face top-seeded TCU in the quarterfinals on Saturday (1 p.m., ESPN+).

The matchup was a rematch of the regular-season finale played on Friday at Prentup Field, which ended in a scoreless tie. Wednesday’s win keeps the Buffs unbeaten in their past seven matchups with the Utes (4-0-3). CU had also gone nine straight matches without scoring multiple goals, dating back to a 2-1 win at Oklahoma State on Sept. 19.

“You’ve just got to keep believing, and that’s all we said at halftime,” CU head coach Danny Sanchez said. “The soccer gods were on our side a little bit in the second half, but those things even out over time. A great effort from Hope on the first goal, and then Ava was just fantastic today. Jordi (Nytes) was big—time.

“Credit to Utah. It was a match that could’ve gone either way, just like Friday. Today was our day.”

CU sat at No. 60 in Wednesday’s RPI rankings, leaving the Buffs’ NCAA Tournament hopes on the brink, and Colorado entered the match having played 377 minutes, 22 seconds without scoring a goal.

That drought had surpassed 420 minutes by halftime, when the Buffs trailed 1-0 after a goal by Utah’s Katie Callaway, who converted a point-blank chance off a pass from Katie O’Kane in the 24th minute.

CU senior defender Phoenix Dawn Miranda, who minutes earlier was forced to momentarily leave the match after blocking a Utah shot with her face, helped the Buffs finally end the scoring slump by delivering a lead pass in the 73rd minute. Leyba managed to tap a shot past charging Utah goalie Kasey Wardle without drawing contact, evening the score at 1-1.

Priest broke the tie in the 86th minute with an attempt that will be a goal-of-the-year candidate, launching a long, looping shot from deep in the left wing that dropped inside the far post for her fourth goal of the season.

The assist on the first goal was the first point of the season for Miranda and the fifth assist of her career, although it was her first since the 2022 season. Nytes finished with six saves.

“I think it says a lot about our team,” Priest said. “I think we’ve been through a lot of adversity recently, but this really showed that we can come together and all of us have a fight in us, all of us are going to fight until the very end.

“(We’ll) get ready for TCU this Saturday. Big game, they’re obviously a good team. But so are we, so I think it will be a good competition.”