The BYU women’s soccer team beat the Arizona Wildcats 3-2 in their exhibition match on Saturday.
“It’s always good to start out the season with a win,” head coach Jennifer Rockwood said. “It was a really tough battle and Arizona was a tough team to play. We rarely give up that many shots on our goal, but we scored three goals. We just have to clean our defense up a little bit and we’ll be ready to go.”
At the half, the Cougars led 2-1. Junior forward Ashley Hatch scored a goal in the 15th minute after midfielder Elena Medeiros received a pass from Jocelyn Loomis and kicked the ball to Hatch. Hatch sent a hard, low pass to the right of the Arizona keeper.
In the 36th minute, sophomore Madie Lyons kicked the ball to Brittain Dearden whose head sent the ball into the goal.
The game-winning goal was scored by Paige Hunt in the 54th minute after taking a pass from Nadia Gomez.
As for defense, junior goalkeeper Rachel Boaz had eight saves, including a diving save in the 84th minute.
Arizona’s Lexe Selman had the first goal for the Wildcats in the 44th minute after a deflection from Boaz. The second goal for the Wildcats came from Laura Pimienta in the 49th off a corner kick.
