SOC Falls Against West Virginia, 2-0

Sunday, October 13

Waco, Texas

1PM

Baylor

7-6-3, 2-4-2

West Virginia

10-3-2, 6-1-1

West Virginia

Baylor

SOC Falls Against West Virginia, 2-0

10/13/2024 3:55:00 PM | Soccer

Box Score Box Score

Bears held scoreless by the Mountaineers

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider

WACO, Texas – Baylor soccer out-shot West Virginia, 11-3, over the last 44 minutes of Sunday's home finale at Betty Lou Mays Field.

The problem was the Bears only kicked the attack into gear after giving up a goal in the last two minutes of the first half and first two minutes of the second in falling to the Mountaineers, 2-0.

"I don't know what took so long," said Baylor coach Michelle Lenard, whose team fell to 7-6-3 overall and 2-4-2 in the Big 12. "That's the mentality going into the first half is we're supposed to be creating those shots. I don't know why we didn't. . . . We really responded well, but it was too little, too late. It's just a tough spot to put ourselves in."

Shut out for just the fifth time, Baylor had four shots on goal over the last 42 minutes, but West Virginia goalkeeper Mackenzie Smith finished with five saves and also eliminated some other threats by leaping up to bring down corner-kick attempts.

"It's so frustrating," said Baylor junior defender Hallie Augustyn. "You put in so much work. Credit to our forwards and midfielders and everyone on the field for putting everything in to trying to get that goal. We had some good opportunities; it was just unfortunate when she got a hand on it."

In a slow start by both teams, Baylor's Tyler Isgrig got off the first shot on goal in the seventh minute, when Smith made a save that created another opportunity with the Bears' only corner kick of the first 45.

Baylor's best chance to break through came in the 25^th minute, when Callie Conrad had a perfect cross to the back side that created an almost empty goal. But sophomore forward Caroline Staubach, who played a career-high 36 minutes off the bench, shot way over the top.

Other than Baylor goalkeeper Azul Alvarez saving the Mountaineers' first three shots on goal, there was very little action in the first half until West Virginia's Olivia Schertzer scored her first career-goal on a counterattack off a "bad pass on us," Lenard said. That one came with just 1:43 left in the opening half and gave WVU the 1-0 lead going into intermission.

The Mountaineers, who out-shot Baylor, 10-3, through the first 45 minutes, quickly doubled that lead just over a minute into the second half. With Alvarez unable to completely clear it or haul the ball in on a cross by Taylor White that "bounced around in the box," senior forward Dilary Heredia-Beltran rifled in her third goal of the season for a 2-0 lead.

"We had two mental lapses," Lenard said. "They're a quality opponent, and you can't give them those types of opportunities. . . . I'm still not clear on what happened (on the second goal), but last five minutes of the first half and first five minutes of the second half, those are hugely important time frames in the game that we talk about day-in and day-out. So, really disappointed and frustrated in how we handled those moments."

The Bears suffered another blow about four minutes later, when sixth-year defender Marissa Gray was carted off with an apparent leg injury on a foul by Ajanae Respass. Gray, who had not played since her freshman season in 2019, has started all 16 games this year and played the full 90 in seven of them.

Despite the barrage of shots in the second half, including two on goal by Isgrig, the Bears were never able to answer and put pressure on the Mountaineers (10-3-2, 6-1-1), who remained third in the Big 12 standings and just one point behind league leaders TCU and Texas Tech.

After completing its home slate with a 4-3-2 record, Baylor will be on the road for its final three games. The Bears have a two-game swing through Utah, facing BYU (5-5-4, 3-2-2) on Thursday in Provo and Utah (6-5-4, 3-3-2) on Sunday in Salt Lake City, before the regular-season finale at Iowa State (3-7-5, 1-3-3) the following Friday, Oct. 25, in Ames.

"We knew these last five games, we probably needed to pull three to four wins," Lenard said of a closing stretch that included Thursday's 4-0 win over Arizona State. "We still have three games in front of us. I think two or three wins put us in a pretty good spot, get us to the conference tournament and keep us in the conversation for the NCAA tournament. I definitely think we can do that, but it's not easy. Every game is hard, especially on the road."

THE RUNDOWN
WACO, Texas – Baylor soccer fell against West Virginia, 2-0, Sunday afternoon in the Bears' last regular-season home game at Betty Lou Mays Field.

To get things started in the first half, Tyler Isgrig forced the West Virginia goalkeeper, Mackenzie Smith, into the first save of the game in the 7^th minute.

Baylor and WVU battled scoreless for most of the first half, with Smith not being tested again in goal for the Mountaineers, as Azul Alvarez made three saves in goal before West Virginia found the advantage. In the 44^th minute, WVU's Olivia Shertzer found the back of the net to put the Mountaineers up 1-0.

Right out of the gate in the second half, West Virginia doubled their lead when Dilary Heredia-Beltran netted a goal to push the Mountaineers lead to 2-0.

After the second WVU goal Isgrig and Ashley Merrill each got shots off but weren't able to find a goal.

Baylor took its best chances of the match in the 65^th and 74^th minutes putting shots on frame that forced corner kicks for the Bears, but no one was able to net a goal.

The Bears out-shot WVU 11-4 in the second half but the Mountaineer defense kept the ball out of the net and ultimately BU fell, 2-0.

HIGHLIGHTS

Baylor had five players play all 90 minutes
Tyler Isgrig had a team-leading five shots, three on goal
Seven Bears combined for 14 shots in the match
Azul Alvarez made five saves in goal
Caroline Staubach played a career-high 36 minutes
Only the second time this season BU has lost by two or more goals

QUOTABLE
Hallie Augustyn on the team mentality …
"We talked about first fives and last fives, and they scored in the last five and then the first five. It was unlucky, but I think our team mentality was pretty good. Coming back from it, we kept trying to attack the goal and just kept working to try and get one. And unfortunate, we didn't, but we kept working."

Michelle Lenard on the team's attack …
"Our back line and our goalkeeper have played well all season. We're working on finishing. We created good chances narrow misses but, narrow misses don't count as goals, so we have to be sharp and more clinical in front of the goal and convert some of those chances into real goals."

WHAT'S NEXT
Up next, the Bears will head on the road for the last three games of the regular season, starting at BYU on Thursday, Oct. 17.

- BaylorBears.com -