By Shannon McOmber
BYU women’s soccer had a roller coaster of a weekend in Milwaukee Friday and Saturday, adding both a win and a loss to the Cougar stats.
The Cougars played a total of three hours of soccer all weekend long, but were only able to walk away with one win against Wisconsin-Milwaukee, falling to Marquette for the first time in BYU soccer history.
“We played well for the first 20 minutes, but after that we couldn’t score and no one stepped up,” Cougar coach Jennifer Rockwood said of the Marquette game.
“This was a very disappointing loss. We have to be more consistent and cannot keep giving up savable goals — in all three of our losses, we outplayed and outshot our opponents, and we can’t continue to give up the points,” she said.
The Cougars lead 1-0 from a goal scored early in the first half by BYU’s Natalyn Lewis but surrendered Marquette’s two points in the back half of the game.
Marquette’s game-winning shots came from two corner kicks that found their way past BYU goalie Jennifer Waldron and into the back of the net.
The Cougars were unable to recover and the game ended in a 2-1 Marquette win.
However, it did not remain in the loser’s division for long. The Cougars worked their way back from Friday’s loss to take the win with a shutout from Wisconsin-Milwaukee Saturday afternoon.
“Things did not come easy for us,” Rockwood said. “We struggled in the first half and couldn’t find our rhythm. We need to give it our all and find a way to win.”
But Rockwood was pleased with the win, and with the defensive efforts of goalie Kylie Dickson who helped the Cougars secure the shutout.
Dickson has performed well for the Cougars lately — Saturday’s game was the second game Dickson has started and her second shutout of the season.
BYU’s offensive efforts, however, were not capitalized on until the middle of the second half when Kim Lowe scored off of Sarah Higham’s assist. Michelle Jensen Peterson used a kick from Jennie Christianson to score the final Cougar goal minutes before the game ended.
The win was a landmark for coach Rockwood as it was the 100th win of her BYU soccer career, with her six-year record now standing at 100-25-1.
The Cougars return home this week for two games on familiar turf. BYU will go against the University of Southern California on Thursday and face Arizona State Saturday. Both games will be played at South Field at 7 p.m.
