NO. 3 UCLA, ST. MARY'S UP NEXT FOR COUGARS
The Cougar women's soccer team returns to California Wednesday to face No. 3 UCLA at 2 p.m. in Los Angeles. UCLA boasts a 6-1-0 record after a 4-0 win over Cal State Northridge, which also lost to BYU, 2-1.
The Cougars have never lost to UCLA, having defeated the Bruins 3-1 in 1997 and 2-0 in 1998 in a NCAA tournament game. Wednesday's meeting will mark the third time BYU has travelled to Los Angeles to play UCLA.
St. Mary's (2-4-1) comes to Provo on Friday, Sept. 27 to square off against the Cougars in a 7 p.m. kickoff. Like the Cougars, the Gaels made it to the second round of the NCAA College Cup last year. This is the first-ever meeting between the two teams.
KBYU TV/BYU TELEVISION TO BROADCAST BYU/ST. MARY'S MATCHUP
KBYU TV and BYU Television will broadcast Friday's matchup against St. Mary's live at 7 p.m. This is the second of three broadcasts KBYU and BYU Television will air of BYU women's soccer this fall. Kim Free will provide play-by-play analysis of the game, while Natalyn Lewis, a 2000 second-team All-MWC selection for BYU, will do color commentary.
BYU Television is available solely through direct satellite broadcast services (e.g., Dish and DirecTV), cable carriers, the Church satellite system and overseas via larger home satellite dishes. Currently, BYU Television is available in some 20 million homes over the Dish Network and DirecTV. It is available by cable in Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and Wyoming.
UP NEXT
BYU begins a six-game road stretch starting on Oct. 3 against Washington State and ending Oct. 19 against Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind. During the long road haul, the Cougars will begin conference play against Air Force Oct. 10, Wyoming on Oct. 12 and New Mexico on Oct. 17.
ROAD WARRIORS
Over the next 25 days, BYU will play seven of its next eight games on the road. The Cougars will log approximately 7,000 miles of travel during the seven road games, enough to travel between Los Angeles and New York City two and a half times.
SCOUTING NO. 3 UCLA
The Bruins boast a No. 3 national ranking and a 6-1-0 record, the lone loss coming at the hands of No. 13 Penn State, 1-0, in double overtime.
UCLA is led by freshman forward Katie Rivera, who has a team-high five goals and is second on the team in assists with three. Another freshman, Iris Mora of Cancun, Mexico, also has five goals off of 12 shots.
SCOUTING ST. MARY'S
The Gaels are coming off their second win of the season, a 2-1 decision over Sacramento State on Sept. 22. St. Mary's record can be deceiving, however, due to its tough schedule. The Gaels have faced the likes of No. 19 Purdue, Cal State Fullerton, No. 2 Stanford and No. 11 California, which they tied 1-1 in double overtime.
St. Mary's is led by sophomore midfielder Sarah Burgess, who has three goals on the season. Keeper Ruth Montgomery has notched 30 saves while giving up seven goals.
GAME RECAPS
In a very hard-fought contest, the BYU women's soccer team fell 1-0 to No. 20 USC in Los Angeles on Saturday, Sept. 21. With the loss, the Cougars move to 3-4 on the year while the Trojans are 3-3-1.
USC's lone goal came in the 32nd minute when senior midfielder Ali Fennell split two Cougar defenders and knocked the ball past Cougar keeper Mandy Gott.
The Trojans took 12 shots in the first half, compared to three for BYU.
Junior forward/midfielder Lydia Ojuka nearly tied the game with a diving header that went just wide of the goal in the waning seconds of the game.
The last-minute heroics of sophomore forward Krissa Campbell lifted the BYU women's soccer team over Cal-State Northridge 2-1, Thursday, Sept. 19.
With 24 minutes into the first half, freshman Brooke Bowman capitalized on a pass that went off the post to put the Cougars up 1-0. All-American Aleisha Cramer Rose was credited with the assist, her first of the season.
With under five minutes left in the game, CSN's Angie Veliz headed in a corner kick from Brynne Blumstein to tie the game at 1-1. Campbell was able to put away a loose ball caused by senior forward Jeni Viernes with 1:58 left on the clock and seal the win for 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.
No. 2-ranked 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 No. 18 Michigan in Ann Arbor, losing 2-1. No. 18 Kentucky defeated the Cougars 2-0 in Provo, while St. Mary's will make its first-ever appearance at South Field on Sept. 27.
BYU took to the road to battle its remaining NCAA tournament participants with a trip to Los Angeles for matchups against USC, which resulted in a 1-0 loss, and now face UCLA Sept. 25. The Cougars also head 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 SDSU. Beginning Nov. 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
20023 40MWC
129373(.763)
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.