BOULDER – CU soccer sensation Hope Leyba speaks softly and carries a big kick.

On a Colorado summer evening when the clouds hovering near the Flatirons lit up like a Monet painting at sundown, I went to watch the greatest player in the 30-year history of the Buffaloes’ soccer program practice her art.

And Leyba did not disappoint.

She dazzled.

During a 6-0 shellacking of the University of Denver that was not as close as the score would indicate, Leyba took the pitch Friday night and scored not one, not two, but three goals suitable for framing.

Why should a striker settle for a brace when you can kick up your boots and get a hat trick?

“It’s always fun for me … It doesn’t get old. Scoring never gets old,” Leyba told me, in a voice so soft and humble it almost sounded as if she’s embarrassed about being one of the nation’s best finishers.

Where does the scoring magic of this tall, strong and not-to-be-messed-with CU senior come from?

“She was born like that,” Buffaloes coach Danny Sanchez said. “She came out of the womb like that.”

I chuckled initially at the answer, figuring Sanchez was being funny.

I figured wrong.

Leyba takes credit the way Whole Foods or Target takes personal checks.

Ain’t going to happen.

Instead, the 21-year-old striker insists her talent is God-given and her unflappable calm when cranking a shot is a gift straight from heaven.

“For me, it’s spending a lot of time in God’s word,” Leyba said. “Reading his word, finding calmness in that. It translates into the game for me.”

And the soccer gods have seldom created a more perfect striker.

Finishing is the most rare and valuable talent in a sport where every score is priceless. Although a senior at Colorado, Leyba has already graduated magna cum laude from finishing school.

With her back to goal, Leyba is too strong to be knocked off her spot, unless you’re planning on parking a bulldozer at the top of the box.

Her shot? Comets are easier to catch.

And maybe Leyba’s best quality is one known to betray even the world’s greatest strikers. With the ball at her feet and a chance to score, instead of rushing, Leyba somehow finds a way to slow the game down to her speed, with the serenity of a Zen master.

Have you ever watched Nuggets center Nikola Jokic turn everything going 100 miles per hour on the basketball court into stop action that makes him look like Neo from “The Matrix”?

That’s Leyba on the soccer pitch.

She scored 22 goals last season for the Buffs. No female college player in the entire USA fired a shot no goalkeeper could stop more often.

Leyba speaks softly. And scores loud goals.

“That’s just her personality,” Buffs teammate Reagan Kotschau said.

Quiet? Yes. Always.

Even Leyba’s goal celebrations are more like a group hug than a look-at-me dance party. But beneath her quiet exterior, Leyba “plays with a lot of passion. Soccer is what she really cares about. And it reflects on the field,” Kotschau said. 

Together, Kotschau and Leyba make magic so powerful on the attack that they frequently made the defense of the Denver Pioneers completely disappear.

For example: Take the goal that put Colorado ahead 4-0 in the 54th minute.

Kotschau boldly dribbled the ball into the box from the left flank, drove fearlessly and deked a DU player who shall remain nameless so badly we’re still wondering if the hapless defender ever found her ankles.

Then, on such an extreme edge of her periphery vision that all Kotschau saw was the outline of a teammate wearing a CU kit, she subtly flipped the ball into open space.

“I wasn’t sure who exactly was there. But I saw someone there,” Kotschau said. “And it was Hope.”

Of course. Who else? Leyba’s first touch was as soft as a baby’s cheek.

You can guess the rest.

Leyba shot. She scored.

The Buffs all hugged. And the crowd of 1,855 at Prentup Field went wild.

This Colorado striker is worthy of a nickname. I’d dub her The Matrix, except it would probably cause Leyba to blush with embarrassment from now until Christmas.

But I’ve seen the most dominating athlete with the most God-given talent on the CU campus, and she doesn’t play for Coach Prime and 50,000 witnesses screaming amen at Folsom Field.

Hope rises. Hope floats.

Hope never quits.

Belief starts with Hope.

In all of college soccer, nobody finishes like Hope.

Regardless of who Colorado plays, either in Big 12 Conference play or what seems to be a certain NCAA tournament bid, if Leyba is on the pitch, the Buffaloes have got Hope.