Provo — BYU women’s soccer has had a dominating season and is the only remaining undefeated team left in the nation, but their season isn’t over yet.
After finishing their regular season ranked No. 4 in the United Soccer Coaches and the Top Drawer Soccer polls, BYU was awarded the No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament and will host Boise State. Both the coaches and the players are ready to redeem themselves after a disappointing loss to TCU in the first round last season.
Head Coach Jennifer Rockwood said, “The expectation coming back this season knowing the goal was to get back and perform a little better, and I think that’s been something that’s a good motivator for us.”
Senior midfielder Mikayla Colohan is ready for redemption as well. “We’ve all kind of had motivation to get back so we could prove ourselves and know that we deserve more. So, we’ve had that in the back of our minds this whole season,” she said.
Colohan is team captain, was named WCC Player of the Year, and has been a major impact on this team. She hopes to “set the energy, set the tone for the team, be a leader on the field so we get a good start, and hopefully get some momentum going into halftime.”
Coach Rockwood contributes much of their success to the team’s experience and strong leadership, especially on the defense. She says, “We focus defensively a lot on our team because we know that defense wins championships and that’s allowed us to keep the ball out of the back of our net and just attack.”
On top of having an elite team, they also have an elite fan base. With the game being at home, the girls hope to have a big crowd and feed off the energy of the fans. Coach Rockwood says, “We have one of the best fan bases in the country for women’s college soccer, they’ve showed that year in and year out. It’s just we feed off that energy. It means a lot to the players and to us as coaches to have that support.”
The Cougars will take on the Broncos at South Field tonight at 6 pm MDT.
