BYU women’s soccer hosts first Big 12 match
Across all sports, the debut of the first ever Big 12 game will take place Thursday, Sept. 14, when the BYU women’s soccer team plays head to head against TCU.
Looking back at last Saturday, Sept. 9, game against Utah, ending 6-0 to the Cougars, we can expect to see defender Olivia Smith-Griffitts, defender Kendall Petersen, and forward Allie Fryer start Thursday night’s game. Against Utah, Olivia Smith-Griffitts tallied her first career brace while defender Kendall Petersen led in assists after tallying her seventh. Allie Fryer also notched her first brace of the 2023 season.
With goals coming from Wade-Katoa and Rachel McCarthy, as of Saturday evening, this was the first game so far where more goals were unassisted than assisted.
TCU’s Horned Frogs most recent game on Sunday, Sept. 10, was against Utah’s Bulldogs at Butler resulting in a 2-1 loss against the Bulldogs.
The Cougars and the Horned Frogs last faced off back in 2018 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. BYU opened the game by scoring during the first half leaving the score 1-0 at half time. TCU however, scored two back to back goals resulting in a 2-1 loss for the Cougars at the Garvey-Rosenthal Soccer Stadium.
This go-around however, the Cougars are currently sitting atop the national rankings for the second week in a row after moving to 7-0 on the season, which is the first time in the program’s history. Seeing that this year’s game will not only be the first ever Big 12 game but also at the South Field home turf, it should play in favor of the Cougars. BYU has never lost to TCU on the South Field, holding a home record of 4-0.
BYU currently averages 19.3 shots per game and 3.29 saves per game, while TCU averages 11.4 shots and 3.29 saves.
Thursday nights game will be the one to watch with it being the first Big 12 game and our team being nationally top ranked for the first time in history.
The game will kickoff at 7p.m. MDT on the South Field. Tickets can be purchased on Byutickets.com with the game also being televised on ESPNU.
