BYU women’s soccer competes in blue vs. white scrimmage

The BYU women’s soccer team played its annual blue vs. white intrasquad scrimmage on Tuesday night at South Field, pitting the roster against each other in a preseason tune-up.

The blue squad rallied from behind to defeat white by a 2-1 final margin. The match was broken into three 20-minute periods.

It was a bouncy, back and forth affair highlighted by aggressive defensive play, where the team’s recent training emphasis on forcing turnovers began to pay dividends.

“We use our press as an attacking system to win the ball back closer to the goal, which helps in our attack and helps create a lot of options for us,” head coach Jennifer Rockwood said. “We take a lot of pride in our defense.”

One such turnover proved crucial late in the third period when blue swiped back the ball on a press which led to a game-winning goal from freshman midfielder Abbie Kotter. Daviana Vaka and Ruby Hladek helped set the table down low for Kotter’s score, which would be the difference in blue’s victory.

“Abbie had a breakout game today, it was the best she’s played so far,” Rockwood said.

Forward Olivia Wade provided white with its lone goal off an assist from Cameron Tucker in the first period. Sophomore Brecken Mozingo, a recent UCLA transfer, put blue on the scoreboard in the second period with an impressive blast that nailed the goalpost before bouncing into the net.

BYU returns all but one starter from last season, but the surplus of experience won’t impede the younger roster prospects from serving as impact performers.

“We have a very experienced, mature group with great leadership, but we have a lot of young, talented players who we saw shine tonight,” Rockwood said. “We’re really excited about this group.”

BYU will face Weber State in an exhibition on Saturday in Provo before opening the season against Ohio State on Aug. 19.