By ELIZABETH PALMER
On a night of wild weather and rough play, BYU’s women’s soccer team emerged rain-soaked and cold but with a 2-0 victory over San Jose State Thursday night at South Field.
It was hailing when the game began, but the skies cleared shortly after kickoff. The rain came back midway through the second half, this time accompanied by fierce wind.
“(Rough conditions) slow down the speed and the niceness of play, but both teams have to work through it,” BYU head coach Jennifer Rockwood said. “We have tremendous athletes and that’s an advantage for us.”
BYU senior forward Shauna Rohbock, who scored one of the Cougars goals and assisted the other, said the weather did effect the game.
“It affects passing; it makes the ball move faster,” she said. “The ball skips and does things you don’t expect it to. But we’re used to it — it should effect the team from California more.”
Whether it was the rain and wind or not, San Jose was outshot 16-7, and managed only one shot in the second half.
The Cougars took an early 1-0 lead when Rohbock dribbled the ball up the field and in close to the net, drawing the San Jose keeper out in front. Rohbock then quickly shifted gears and redirected the ball to junior forward Maren Hendershot coming in from behind for the easy score.
“Shauna and Maren’s combination was one of the prettiest goals we’ve seen all year,” Rockwood said.
Rohbock said she just wanted to get things going for her team.
“We were kind of down the first 10 minutes of the game,” she said. “I got the ball at midfield and was just trying to make anything happen.”
The game remained at 1-0 for the next hour until Rohbock found herself open with the ball on the outside and managed to kick it into the goal despite losing her footing on the play.
Rockwood said the Cougars made some adjustments during halftime that helped slow down the Spartans.
“San Jose State came out really strong. They outplayed us in the first 15 minutes,” she said. “We were giving up marks in the middle, and at halftime we told our midfielders to do a better job of marking up … in the second half we started winning balls.”
The victory set up a WAC championship game featuring the 15th-ranked Cougars against ninth-ranked San Diego State, a rematch of a game played two weeks ago at South Field. San Diego State defeated the Cougars 1-0 in that game, one of the most evenly matched games BYU played this season.
Rohbock said that match featured an “awful” first half by the Cougars, but BYU proved it could stay with the Aztecs in the second half.
“We’ll definitely have to come out strong right off. If not, they’ll finish us,” she said. “We can’t let down at all. If we play like we’re capable we’ll have a good chance (to win).”
Kickoff of the championship game is set for 4 p.m. Saturday at South Field.
San Diego State 2 Fresno State 0:
Doing its part to set up the WAC championship game everyone expected, San Diego State shut out Fresno 2-0 Thursday to earn a trip to the final round.
The Aztecs dominated the game offensively, allowing Fresno only two shots on goal the entire game.
San Diego State forward Susan Mendez was too much for the Bulldogs, scoring both goals for the Aztecs. She opened the scoring in the game’s seventh minute, accepting a pass from midfielder Fay Dehean and directing it into the goal.
The Bulldogs’ defense kept them in the game until late in the second half when Mendez scored again to give her team a comfortable two-goal lead.
