FORT WORTH, Texas – The No. 24 BYU women's soccer team fell 2-1 to TCU after conceding two second half goals within five minutes in the NCAA First Round.
"I am kind of speechless because we played one of our best halves of the year in the first half," BYU head coach Jennifer Rockwood said. "We set the tone, dictated the tempo and owned the width. The second half I'm not sure what happened. TCU came out stronger and a lot more physical. Soccer is crazy and in a less than five-minute span we gave up two goals, and that will get you every time."
Elise Flake scored the Cougars' (13-5-1) only goal of the match in the 23rd minute when Mikayla Colohan set up Flake for a left footed shot outside of the 18-yard box as the ball deflected off the left post and across the goal line.
In the first half, BYU outshot TCU (13-4-3) 9-3 and was led by Madie Siddoway Gates with three shot attempts. Sabrina Macias Davis grabbed two saves in goal for the Cougars.
The Horned Frogs evened the score at 1-all in the 56th minute when Messiah Bright took on the BYU defense and powered a shot past Davis and into the back of the net.
In the 61st minute, TCU took a 2-1 lead after forcing a turnover near the 18-yard box and capitalizing on the opportunity.
Despite BYU creating shots in the final minutes of the game, the Horned Frogs defense held on as TCU advances to the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament.
At the close of the game, the Cougars recorded 16 shots and held the Horned Frogs to only eight shots. Davis tallied three saves in goal for BYU.
The Cougars close the season with a 13-5-1 overall record and were the West Coast Conference champions. BYU will return the majority of the roster in 2019 after losing Gates as the only senior and Olivia Wade to a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.