FORT WORTH, Texas – No. 8 seeded BYU defeated No. 5 Baylor 4-0 in the Big 12 Soccer Tournament Semifinal match, earning a spot in the conference championship match Saturday night.
Saturday’s Big 12 Soccer Championship game will be played against the winner of tonight’s matchup between Kansas and No. 12 Colorado. The matchup will be played at Betty Lou Mays Soccer Field in Waco, Texas at 6 p.m. MT with streaming on ESPN+.
This is the first time since TCU in 2012 that a No. 8 seed has made the Big 12 championship game. A No. 8 seed has never won the Big 12 soccer tournament.
This will be BYU’s second appearance in the Big 12 Soccer Championship, the first of which came in 2023.
Ellie Walbruch scored her 14th and 15th goals of the year in the win over the Bears, her second brace of the Big 12 tournament. With 15 goals on the season, Walbruch has recorded the most by a BYU player in a single season since 2021. She is the first player since 1996 to score back-to-back braces in the Big 12 Soccer Tournament.
BYU’s second goal-scorer of the night was junior Mattyn Summers-Oviatt. After playing center back for the Cougars in every game last season, Summers-Oviatt has come off the bench to score three goals for BYU this year.
Ella Labrum scored her first goal of the season in tonight’s match, second of her career. Halle Dixon tallied a career-high two assists.
Presley Freeman, Mia Goettsche, Izzi Stratton and Afton Perry also tallied assists in tonight’s match. The Cougars totaled a season-high six assists on four goals.
With three saves in today's game, Chelsea Peterson recorded her first clean sheet as the starting goalkeeper for BYU.
The last time the Bears were shutout was their 3-0 loss to then-No. 14 TCU on Thursday, Oct. 16.
The Cougars outshot the Bears 21-15, with eight shots on goal compared to Baylor's three. BYU forced Baylor's goalkeeper to make four saves on the day.
First Half
Baylor had a quick shot on goal in the second minute of the match, punched out by BYU goalkeeper Chelsea Peterson.
BYU’s first shot of the game came in the eighth minute as Mika Krommenhoek took a chance from the top of the arc, blocked by the outstretched foot of a Baylor defender.
The Cougars continued to press, firing off three more shots in the next two minutes.
The back-and-forth on the pitch continued with the teams exchanging times of possession. In the 21st minute, Mackenzee Vance took on her defender and took a left-footed shot from the top of the 18-yard box, saved by a diving Baylor goalkeeper.
Walbruch collected a ball and took a shot from the top of the box in the 29th minute, blocked by Baylor’s backline.
Just a minute later, Labrum hit a cross off her defender to earn the Cougars their first corner kick of the match.
Perry took the short corner kick, passing the ball back to Freeman, who sent it right back to her. Perry sent a left-footed cross into the box, off the head of Walbruch to put BYU up 1-0.
Just six minutes later, Dixon took a shot inside the box, deflected by a defender. Dixon ran onto the deflected ball and chipped the Baylor keeper, finding the head of Summers-Oviatt on the back post, extending BYU’s lead, 2-0.
A Baylor shot in the 41st minute skimmed right off the crossbar and was cleared out by BYU’s backline.
The Cougars went into the locker room with the 2-0 advantage, outshooting the Bears 12-7 with four shots on frame compared to Baylor’s one.
Second Half
In the 51st minute, Vance beat her defender on the right side of the pitch and got a cross off into the box that ricocheted off the foot of a Baylor defender and found the foot of Mia Goettsche, collected by the keeper.
The Bears earned back-to-back-to-back corner kicks in a three-minute span, firing off three shots inside the box, all handled by BYU’s backline.
The Cougars continued to control possession of the ball, with several more attempts on goal, unable to convert.
In the 78th minute, Stratton sent a ball up to Dixon who crossed the ball into the box and Labrum got a foot on it, giving BYU its fourth goal of the match.
Peterson came up big again for the Cougars with a diving punch in the 80th minute of the match.
The Cougars did not let up, keeping the pressure on Baylor’s backline and goalkeeper, with a shot by Emma Hamberlin with just under four minutes to go, saved by a diving Bears keeper.