BYU women's soccer falls to Santa Clara in season-ending NCAA tournament home loss
The Santa Clara Broncos blanked the BYU women's soccer team 1-0 on Friday in a first-round NCAA tournament match at South Field.
It was the seventh NCAA tournament appearance in a row for the Cougars. Santa Clara’s victory boosted its edge in the all time series to 10-3-7 and more importantly extended its season.
“Congratulations to BYU on an incredible year,” said Santa Clara head coach Jerry Smith. “We have so much respect for their program.”
The game got off to a quick start. Within the first 12 seconds, Santa Clara attempted a corner kick, which was successfully defended. The miss set the tone of the first half for both teams. The Broncos outshout BYU 11-7 in the first half.
BYU goalkeeper Lynette Hernaez had several clutch saves in the tail end of the first half, one of which was a diving save in the 27-minute mark. A near miss in the five minute mark by Santa Clara’s Kennedy Schoennauer had the ball rolling down the side of the goalpost.
An ensuing corner kick was stifled, and another bullet was dodged for the Cougars. Santa Clara held a 3-2 advantage in corner kicks before halftime, where the script was flipped.
One specific portion of the second half proved too much to overcome for the Cougars. In a span of about 13 minutes of play, BYU had five corner kick opportunities but could not take advantage of any them.
“Obviously, a very tough loss for us,” said coach Jennifer Rockwood. “We only gave up one shot in the second half and unfortunately it was the one that got us.”
Santa Clara ended the drought with a goal from Tori Powell with 20 minutes to go.
“I knew on this field it was a good chance to take the shot outside the box,” she said. “I didn’t feel too much pressure in front of me, so I decided to hit high.”
Another chance for BYU to tie the game arose when a yellow card was assessed to Santa Clara's Ava Weiland with a little over nine minutes left to play. But BYU remained scoreless due to a clutch save by Santa Clara’s goalkeeper Marlee Nicolos.
But late-game dramatics were not done. BYU appeared to even things up 1-1 with a little over a minute left in regulation. However, the tying score was wiped away due to an offside penalty, ultimately being the straw that broke the camel’s back.
The Broncos proceeded to keep the Cougars at bay in the final minute by kicking the ball down the field. BYU’s season was finished.
“I’m super proud of this group; we’ve fought through a lot of adversity,” said Ellie Walbruch, a Junior from Highland. “We are obviously frustrated by this outcome, but we’ll come back.”
Walbruch tore her ACL last December.
“She’s someone that the team really look up to,” Rockwood said of the midfielder. “She workers harder then anyone out there.”
“One thing about this team is even when we went down we kept attacking," said Mika Krommenhoek, a freshman from Mapleton. “That is something that will help us in the future, maintaining that grit no matter the score.”
BYU finished the year with a 9-7-5 overall record and 6-2-3 in Big 12 play, good for fourth in the conference. With the win, Santa Clara advances to the second round in NCAA tournament play and will face the No. 2 seeded North Carolina Tar Heels.
“Soccer is a brutal sport,” said Rockwood. “Sometimes the ball doesn’t bounce your way. We’ve had a great run this year. We’ll be ready and better than ever next season.”