SOC Readies for Contest at Texas A&M

Saturday, August 26

College Station, Texas

8PM

Baylor

Texas A&M

SOC Readies for Contest at Texas A&M

8/25/2023 1:28:00 PM | Soccer

Game Notes Watch Live Stats

Bears facing Aggies for 21st time

BAYLOR VS TEXAS A&M
Saturday, Aug. 26 at 8 p.m. CT
Ellis Field
Video: SEC Network+

BAYLOR BEARS
2023 Record: 1-1
Head Coach: Michelle Lenard (North Texas, 2003)
Career Record: 206-89-27 (16th season)
BU Record: 5-12-2 (2nd season)

TEXAS A&M AGGIES
2023 Record: 0-2
TEXAS A&M (0-2)
Head Coach: G Guerrieri (Tulsa, 1985)
Career Record: 500-170-47 (33rd season)
TAMU Record: 484-158-47 (31st season)

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            Renewing an old rivalry that saw the teams play 20 times between 1996 and 2013, Baylor soccer (1-1-0) will face Texas A&M (0-2-0) at 8 p.m. Saturday at Ellis Field in College Station.
            While the two teams have only played one regular-season game since the Aggies left the Big 12 for the SEC in 2012, they played an exhibition game in the spring.
            "Playing them in the spring obviously benefits us and them," second-year Baylor head coach Michelle Lenard said. "I don't think there's maybe as many surprises about how we're trying to play and maybe who some of our new players are. But we've also made a lot of new additions since then. We're better than we were in the spring."
            Twelve of Baylor's 15 newcomers didn't show up until this summer, so A&M will have to do some learning on the fly. Freshman Skylar Zinnecker and TCU transfer Tyler Isgrig scored the Bears' goals in a 2-0 win over Oregon, while freshman Callie Conrad scored in Sunday's 2-1 loss at Nebraska.
            "I was really working the whole game, not really getting frustrated, but just wanting to score, of course, because it was 0-0," said Isgrig, who scored six goals for the Horned Frogs last year. "I was really excited and kind of relieved when I finally was able to score, just to get a little pressure off of us."
            Despite a scoreless first half at Oregon, Lenard said she "never sensed frustration from the group."
            "We were consistent, we stayed on them, very persistent in our attack," she said. "We made a couple adjustments at halftime just to get our mentality right in terms of how we want to execute inside the box. When they did leave their defensive half to attack, which wasn't frequent, we wanted to make sure that we were more dangerous in our counter attack."
            Sophomore defensive midfielder Hannah Augustyn said the influx of newcomers wasn't as much of a challenge as "it was a new opportunity and a new start."
            "Just to get new players, new personalities, new techniques when it comes to soccer, and just having a different vibe on the team, more intense, it was better," Augustyn said.
            While Baylor's three goals were scored by newcomers, Lenard said senior forward Ashley Merrill "was unlucky not to score in that Oregon game" when two of her four shots were on goal.
            "She had two great chances, that goalkeeper just played really well," Lenard said of Merrill, who scored four goals last year after netting a school-record 69 goals in three seasons at Dallas Baptist. "Obviously, we've got other players on our team capable of scoring, in all of our lines. Both Hannah and Hallie (Augustyn) each almost scored a goal from a set piece. And they're coming up from the back for those moments. We have weapons all over."
            A&M, which leads the all-time series with Baylor, 14-4-2, opened last week with one-goal losses to No. 6 Florida State (2-1) and Washington State (3-2).
            "A lot of our players played with players at A&M. They went to school with them, played club soccer with them," Lenard said. "They're talking to them about this game. And it's fun. We embrace that. They're right down the road, it's an exciting opportunity. It should be a great game for women's college soccer."
            After opening the season with three-straight road games, Baylor will return home to host Louisiana Tech (1-1-1) at 7 p.m. Thursday at Betty Lou Mays Field. Saturday's game against the Aggies will be broadcast by the SEC Network.

STORY LINES

Baylor continues the 2023 season with a road trip to College Station to face the Aggies, Aug. 26, 2023. The Bears are continuing their road swing which started last week at Oregon and Nebraska.
The 2023 season marks the 27th season of the Baylor Soccer program. During that time, BU has won four Big 12 titles, advanced to two Elite Eights and had four All-Americans to go with countless All-Big 12 and Academic All-Big 12 honorees.
This season also marks the second year of the Michelle Lenard coaching era, as she was selected as the Bears sixth head coach in program history in December of 2021.
With the NCAA now allowing a third paid assistant for coaching staffs, volunteer assistant and goalkeepers coach, Cameron Carter was promoted to assistant coach in July of 2023.
With the new Big 12 teams joining the conference this season, the Bears will only play 10 of the 13 other opponents this season. The Bears will face all four of the new schools, Cincinnati, UCF, Houston and BYU. BU will not face Oklahoma, Oklahoma State or West Virginia in regular season play.
Baylor has a 31 person roster this season and features 16 returners and 15 newcomers.
BU has nine starters returning, Madison Martin, Jenna Patterson, Reneta Vargas, Blythe Obar, Ashley Merrill, Ava Colberg, Morgan Greensage, Hallie Augustyn and Hannah Augustyn
Baylor lost four starters from the 2022 squad.
Joining the 2022 squad are four transfers, Makinzie Short (Oklahoma), Natalie Vatter (Ole Miss), Hannah Boughton (Missouri) and Tyler Isgrig (TCU).
The 11 incoming freshmen are, Salma Simonin, Adriana Merriam, Callie Conrad, Brianna Chesley, Theresa McCullough, Georgia Mulholland, Skylar Zinnecker, Claire Kniss, Kaitlin Swann, Caroline Staubach and Riley Franklin.
The Bears are coming off of a 1-1 opening week where they defeated the Oregon Ducks, 2-0, before traveling to Nebraska and falling to the Huskers, 2-1.
BU's three goals scored in the first week of play were all scored by newcomers. Freshman Callie Conrad netted a goal against Nebraska, while freshman Skylar Zinnecker and transfer Tyler Isgig found the back of the net against Oregon. Conrad also recorded an assist in the match against Oregon. She is the first freshman to score points in the in each of the Bears first two games of a season since Maddie Algya and Taylor Moon did so in 2018.
Goalkeeper Makinzie Short made both starts in goal for the Bears during the first week of play, recording 11 saves and picking up a shutout.
The Bears recorded 22 shots against Oregon, the most in a game since Sept. 16, 2021, versus SFA (24).
This season the Bears roster features an international student-athlete for the first time since the 2017 season when the Bears had two. Salma Simonin comes to Baylor from Manchester, United Kingdom.
BU faced two opponents during preseason play, defeating Oklahoma, 3-2, and Tarleton 4-0. The Bears matchup against OU was likely the last time these two teams will face each other as conference opponents, although it was a preseason match.
Merrill and Reneta Vargas were the team's leading point scorers last season with 10 and are both back this season.
The Bears are 4-14-2 all-time against Oregon, with the last meeting on Sept. 8, 2013, when BU and the Aggies ended in a double-overtime 0-0 draw.