BIG SKY CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS MAKE TREK TO PROVO
Idaho State University, the 2001 tournament champions of the Big Sky Conference, will play BYU Saturday, Sept. 14 at 7 p.m. in Provo. ISU boasts a 3-1 record after beginning the season with three wins. The Bengals first loss came at the hands of Boise State during Idaho State's Bengal Classic last weekend.
The Cougars head into Saturday's matchup with a 2-2 record and a 1-0 series lead against ISU, winning 3-1 in Provo Sept. 19, 1998. Last Friday, BYU lost to No. 18 Kentucky 2-0 but responded Saturday by dominating Northwestern offensively and defensively on its way to a 5-0 victory.
ISU was picked to repeat as BSC champions this year in the preseason conference coaches poll. The Bengals tallied 34 points and four of seven possible first-place votes to beat out Montana, which received 30 points.
SCOUTING IDAHO STATE
ISU began the season 3-0 with wins over Utah State, Southern Utah and Siena. Boise State handed the Bengals their first loss of the season during the Bengal Classic last weekend.
ISU won the Big Sky Conference last year and made its first appearance in the NCAA College Cup appearance. Coach Gordon Henderson was named Big Sky Coach of the Year for the second consecutive year after guiding his team to an 11-7-2 season that included nine shutouts. Sophomore forward Stacey Peterson leads the Bengals with one assist and three goals on ll shots.
UP NEXT
The Cougars will play their fourth-consecutive home game Thursday, Sept. 19 when they face Northride at 7 p.m. Two days later, the Cougars' second road trip of the season will bring them to Los Angeles to play USC at 1 p.m.
GIRL SCOUT AND CHAMBER NIGHT THIS SATURDAY
All Girl Scouts who attend Saturday night's game in uniform will be given half-price admission to the game. The evening's events will include activities geared specifically for the girl scouts.
Also, all chamber members will receive $1 off admission, lowering the price to $4, or $9 for a chamber member's entire family.
COUGARS OVERWHELM NORTHWESTERN 5-0
PROVO -- The BYU women's soccer team went on an offensive tear Saturday night, defeating Northwestern 5-0 at South Field in front of 1,384 fans to even its season record at 2-2.
After being shutout for only the fourth time in eight years at South Field last night against No. 18 Kentucky, the Cougars responded by making Northwestern (1-1-1) the 38th team to be shutout by BYU at South Field since 1995.
In the 23rd minute, senior Jeni Willardson-Viernes started the scoring for the Cougars after receiving an assist from midfielder Krissa Campbell. Viernes then sprinted with the ball down the right side of the field, breaking away from the defender and drawing the goalie out before putting the ball in the left corner of the net. Viernes leads the team with three goals on the season.
Halftime adjustments by BYU head coach Jennifer Rockwood allowed the Cougars to take advantage of a breakdown in the Wildcats' defense.
"We needed to use the outside wings more because Northwestern wasn't protecting it and didn't recognize it," Rockwood said. "We did a much better job of finding the outside in the second half."
Viernes got into the act again in the second half, feeding the ball to sophomore Aydre Soffe who one-timed the assist past Northwestern's keeper Susie McCreery to score her first goal of the season at 53:43.
BYU also found a scoring punch from off the bench as junior Jennifer Henry-Fielding scored twice and freshman Brooke Bowman found the net once. Fielding and Bowman came off the bench to record their first goals.
"Jennifer Fielding and Brooke Bowman gave us a lot of energy and a great spark off the bench tonight," Rockwood said.
Fielding's first goal was rocket that ricocheted off a Wildcat defender who tried to clear the shot but instead kicked it into her own net in the 57th minute. Ten minutes later, Fielding scored again when McCreery collided with one of her own defender's as they tried to stop Fielding's shot, which then bounced off the two Northwestern players into the net.
Two minutes later, in the 69th minute, Bowman took a pass from freshman Brooke Thulin and delivered to the right side of the net to end the scoring for the Cougars.
The BYU defense only allowed eight shots compared to BYU's 22 shots on goal, and Cougar keeper Mandy Gott recorded three saves on the night, all in the first half as Ashley Smith took over goal duties in the second half.
KENTUCKY DOWNS BYU 2-0
PROVO -- In a rare home loss, the BYU women's soccer team fell 2-0 to Kentucky Friday night. It is only the ninth home loss in eight years for the Cougars.
"We really struggled to get things going at the beginning of the game," said BYU head coach Jennifer Rockwood. "We've opened the season with three tough teams, and the last two have out-pressured us."
The Wildcats scored their first goal in the 15th minute when a misdirected header by a Cougar ended up under the control of Kentucky midfielder Elizabeth Ramsey. The Wildcat junior fired a shot into the right bottom corner of the net, deflecting off keeper Mandy Gott's hands. That would end the scoring for the half, with the shots even at four apiece for each team.
Ramsey again found the net at 56:43 off a penalty shot placed in the upper right-hand corner of the net, giving her a team-high three goals on the season.
Cougar Krissa Campbell paced BYU with three shots on goal. One came in the 60th minute which was blocked over the top of the net by the out-stretched hands of Kentucky goalkeeper Liz Butler.
Another came a short time later when Campbell's shot was partially blocked at the last second by a Kentucky defender and ended up in Butler's cradled arms. Butler ended the night with two saves, compared to Gott's five.
BYU WINS SEVENTH-STRAIGHT SEASON OPENER
With their 2-1 win over No. 3 Portland, the Cougars recorded their seventh-straight season opening victory. The streak began in 1996 when Montana fell 4-2. The next year, Fullerton gave way to the Cougars, 3-2. In 1998, U. Mass. became the next victim, losing 3-2. Arizona State lost 3-2 at home to the Cougars in 1999, while Weber State left South Field 7-1 losers in 2000. Last year, USC came to Provo for the Cougars' first game of the season and were shutout 2-0 by BYU.
2002 SCHEDULE PITS COUGARS AGAINST NATION'S BEST
The 2002 BYU women's soccer team opens the season playing its first three games against teams that participated in last year's NCAA Women's Soccer College Cup.
The University of Portland opened the Cougars' season at South Field on August 30, losing 2-1 to BYU. Then BYU traveled to Wolverine country to take on Michigan in Ann Arbor, losing 2-1. Kentucky came to Provo for the first time and left with a 2-0 victory. St. Mary's will also make a first-ever appearance at South Field on Sept. 27.
BYU will have to battle its remaining NCAA tournament participants on the road with a trip to Los Angeles for matchups against USC and UCLA and to South Bend for a first-ever meeting with Notre Dame.
The Cougar team spends the first three weeks of October on the road, returning to South Field on Oct. 24. The team's itinerary includes trips to Washington, Montana, Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico.
In MWC action, the Cougars will spend most of conference play on the road, hosting only UNLV and San Diego State. But beginning November 6, by virtue of winning last year's Championships in Las Vegas, BYU hosts this year's Mountain West Conference Championships with the title game scheduled for Sat., Nov. 9. The MWC champion gets an automatic bid into the 2002 NCAA Women's College Cup Championships which begin on Nov. 13.
COUGARS GRAB THIRD CONSECUTIVE MWC TITLE
Complete dominance is the best way to describe BYU's stranglehold on the Mountain West Conference. The Cougars have won both the regular season and tournament titles in the MWC in each of the last three years. After taking care of business during the regular season, going 17-2 in three years of MWC conference play, BYU proved to be the real deal by winning the conference tournament as well.
The streak began in 1999, when BYU posted a 2-1 victory over San Diego State University to win the tournament title. In 2000, the Cougars beat Utah 6-1 to again claim the title. Last year, UNLV became the next victim in BYU's incredible run, losing 2-1 to the Cougars in the MWC tournament championship game.
For the 2002 season, the conference coaches also voted the Cougars to win the regular season and championship crown.
CREAM OF THE CROP
The nine new freshmen players set to kick off their soccer collegiate years at BYU this fall were recently ranked the 17th best recruiting class in the nation by Soccer Buzz Magazine. That's the highest ranking ever for an incoming class in the program's history. BYU also finished fifth in the West Region behind UCLA, Arizona State, Stanford and California.
All-Americans Brooke Bowman (Plano, TX) and Jennifer Henry Fielding (Pasco, WA) are two of the highly touted players. Bowman and Fielding will add more strength and depth to BYU's team along with the other seven very experienced and accomplished freshmen.
Jamie Rendich and Brooke Thulin, from Southern California have trained and played in one of the country's most talented pools of players. Their So. Cal Blues club is considered one of the top youth clubs in the country with a National Youth Championship to prove it. They have also both represented Southern California on their State ODP team and on the Region IV ODP team.
Two of the Utah recruits, Ashley Smith and Natalie Evans, along with sophomore keeper Amanda Gott, will be vying for the starting goalkeeper spot.
SOUTH FIELD
South Field, home to the Cougars since 1995, is a tough place to steal a victory. In seven seasons, BYU has posted a 52-8-1 (.852) record on their home grass. At one point, the Cougars had a three-year win streak in Provo, from Sept. 30, 1995 to Sept. 6, 1998.
BYU's home field advantage is enhanced by the presence of a large and vocal Cougar crowd. Attendance at South Field consistently ranks among the best in the nation. Last year, BYU ranked 12th among national attendance leaders with an average of 1,087 fans filling the seats at South Field.
THE ROCKWOOD FILE
Jennifer Rockwood begins her eighth season at the helm of BYU's women's soccer program. In six years she has guided her team to four conference championships and five straight appearances in the NCAA Championships, beginning with the 1997 season. The Cougars have had two "Sweet Sixteen" finishes: in 1998 and in 2000, both times losing to Santa Clara. Last year the BYU team lost to Nebraska in Second Round action. Her many honors include two Coach of the Year honors by the WAC in 1996 and in 2000 by the MWC.
Under Rockwood's tutelage, a long list of All-American soccer players have emerged from BYU's program. Among them are two that are current players of the newly organized Women's United Soccer Association. Maren Hendershot plays for the San Jose Cyberrays and Shauna Rohbock with the San Diego Spirit. Other noteworthy All-Americans include Aleisha Cramer Rose, Staci Reynolds and Michelle Peterson.
During the 2000 season, she became the first MWC coach to eclipse the 100-win total on Sept. 23 with a 2-0 victory over Milwaukee-Wisconsin. Entering the 2000 season, coach Rockwood was ranked fifth among active coaches by winning percentage. She has averaged 18.6 wins per season over the past five years, which ranks second behind only Anson Dorrance of North Carolina for wins per season. Dorrance has won an average of 22.2 matches per season.
Prior to becoming the head coach, Rockwood led BYU's highly successful club soccer team for six years. In her final two years, she took her teams to first place in the Western National Collegiate Club Soccer Association (NCCSA) championships and to second place in the NCCSA national championships.
The Lake Oswego, Oregon, native was a three-sport athlete in soccer, basketball and track. After one year at Ricks College on a basketball scholarship, she transferred to BYU and was four-year starter at center midfield on the Cougars' club team.
Rockwood has also coached in the Utah ODP , the youth club's and high school levels.
ROCKWOOD, YEAR-BY-YEAR
YearW LTConference
199511 81WAC
199622 10WAC
199719 40WAC
199820 50WAC
199921 40MWC
200019 41MWC
200114 71MWC
20022 20MWC
128353(.771)
BYU club team under Rockwood:
128-25-9 (.790), six years (1989-1994)
COUGARS LOVE COUGARS
Several members of the Cougars' soccer team have married members of BYU's other athletic teams. Junior defender Farrah Hofheins-Olmstead is married to Shawn Olmstead, a member of BYU's volleyball team. Terra Smith-Bigelow stole the heart of Mark Bigelow, a star on BYU's basketball team. Senior Jeni Willardson-Viernes likes to kick it around with husband Spencer, who is on the men's soccer club team at BYU. Also of note, freshman midfilder/defender Brooke Thulin has a brother, J.R., who is an offensive lineman for the football team.
DEFENSE GARNERS NATIONAL RECOGNITION
BYU's ability to shutout its opponents is among the best at the national level. The Cougars tied for 18th nationally in shutouts per game last year, holding opponents scoreless in 11 of 22 games for a 0.50 average. BYU has posted three seasons with 11 shutouts (1998, 1999, 2001), while the Cougars' 1996 team holds the school record at 12.
BYU TO HOST 2002 MWC TOURNAMENT
The Cougars will play host to the 2002 Mountain West Conference Championships Nov. 6-9 at South Field in Provo. The following is a breakdown of the three-day tournament. The winner of the Championship receives an automatic bid into the 2002 NCAA Women's College Cup Championships which begin Nov. 13.
OPENING ROUND: Wednesday, Nov. 6
Game 1: No. 4 seed vs. No. 5
Game 2: No. 2 seed vs. No. 7
Game 3: No. 3 seed vs. No. 6
*The No. 1 seed receives a first-round bye.
SEMIFINALS: Thursday, Nov. 7
Game 4: No. 1 seed vs. Game 1 winner
Game 5: Game 2 winner vs. Game 3 winner
FINALS: Saturday, Nov. 9
Championship game between semifinals winners.