BYU women’s soccer suffered a tough loss to Stanford in Palo Alto, California, on Labor Day.
This was the first time the Cougars played a Top 10 opponent while being in the Top 10 themselves. Stanford (4-0) lived up to its ranking, shutting out the Cougars 1-0.
Thirty-two minutes into the first half Stanford midfielder Jordan DiBiasi took a shot on the right side, 18 yards from the goal. Kyra Carusa and Laura Liedle recorded assists after a cross and one-touch pass to DiBiasi for her first goal of the season.
For the first time this season, the Cougars (3-1) were down 1-0 at halftime without a shot on goal.
Sophomore midfielder Jocelyn Loomis came in off the bench in the second half bringing some extra energy into the game and hoping to spark something.
“I felt like I needed to come in and bring something else, bring something big to the table,” Loomis said. “As hard as it is to sit on the bench, you come in, do your part.”
Seventy-five minutes into the game, junior forward Ashley Hatch had the Cougars’ only shot on goal. It was shot from far out, hit the crossbar and bounced into Campbell’s arms. It was Campbell’s fourth save and the fifth shot on goal against Stanford this season. Hatch also set a new BYU record with her 47th career start.
Prior to the 79th minute, Stanford had yet to concede a corner kick all season and boasted 36 unanswered corner kicks. Then within five minutes the Cougars had four corner kicks. On Madie Lyons’ first corner kick, Campbell missed the ball, it bounced and midfielder Elena Medeiros shot it wide left. Defender Sarah Chambers Gardner also had a shot that went wide as a result of a BYU corner kick.
“Those last 20 minutes, I thought we looked a little more composed, we were battling a little bit more, competing more, and we had some players step up and put some pressure on towards the end,” head coach Jennifer Rockwood said.
Stanford outshot BYU 13-9, while BYU goalkeeper Rachel Boaz had five saves on the night.
“[I was] really impressed with our defense,” Rockwood said. “I mean, Stephanie Ringwood, holy cow, phenomenal. Her and Taylor (Campbell Isom) just did a phenomenal job in closing them down and they had a lot of work to do tonight…keeping them to one, I was proud of the way we defended.”
Despite what the scoreboard says, the Cougars are confident they can move forward as a better team.
“I learned that we can compete with anyone, even the No. 2 team in the nation,” Loomis said. “I mean, we came in very confident, which was great. But it taught us a little lesson, that no matter how good we have done so far, we still have work to do.”
BYU will play at home this week at the South Field against Utah State on Thursday, Sept. at 7 p.m. MDT and UNLV on Saturday, Sept. at 6 p.m. MDT. Both games will be broadcast live on ESPN 960 AM while the Utah State game can also be found on BYUtv and Cougar IMG Sports Network.
