Oct. 17, 2024 • 8 p.m. CT • Watch: ESPN+ • Provo, Utah • South Field
  Oct. 20, 2024 • 2 p.m. CT • Watch: ESPN+ • Salt Lake City, Utah • Ute Field

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
 
Still needing at least one more win to lock down a berth in the Big 12 Championship that begins later this month in Kansas City, Baylor soccer (7-6-3, 2-4-2) will close out with three "winnable" road games over the next nine days.
 
Coming off a 2-0 loss at home to West Virginia, the Bears will face BYU (6-5-4, 4-2-2) at 8 p.m. CT Thursday at South Field in Provo, followed by a matchup at Utah (6-5-4, 3-3-2) at 2 p.m. CT Sunday at Ute Field in Salt Lake City. They close out the regular season against Iowa State (3-7-5, 1-3-3) next Friday in Ames.
 
"These are all games we feel like we can win," Baylor coach Michelle Lenard said. "Honestly, there's no one in the conference that we don't feel that we can beat on the day. The question is consistency and making sure that we show up, that we find ways to put the ball in the back of the net."
 
BYU has advanced to the Women's Cup (Final 4) twice in the last three years, losing to Florida State on penalty kicks in the 2021 championship and then falling to Stanford, 2-0, in last year's semifinals. Ranked third in the preseason poll, the Cougars went 2-3-2 in non-conference and are now 40^th in the RPI rankings, six spots ahead of Baylor.
 
"They're not that team in terms of experience and maybe even overall talent right now as young as they are," Lenard said. "But they are that team mentally. They think they're still that team, and they play like that. They're aggressive, they compete for everything, they carry themselves with a particular type of confidence, and they can be dangerous to play against. But I do think they have more vulunerables. We know that we're the better team."
 
Lenard said that was also the case in Sunday's loss to West Virginia, when the Bears out-shot the Mountaineers, 11-3, over the last 44 minutes after giving up a pair of "soft goals."
 
"All these games have been winnable for us. We have to trust the process," she said. "In this last game, we had the higher possession, by a lot; we had the higher (expected goals). We felt like we at least deserved to walk out of that game with a tie. But sometimes, that's how soccer goes. We do believe that if you do that week in and week out, you win those metrics, that you're going to win the game more often than not."
 
Junior forward Tyler Isgrig leads the Bears with 16 points (five goals, six assists), whle Callie Conrad and Ashley Merill have each tallied four goals and twin sisters Hallie and Hannah Augustyn are tied with three goals apiece. Allie Fryer leads the Cougars with six goals and two assists.
 
"We have to be sharp defensively," Lenard said, "but we have to take risks offensively in order to create and score, which sometimes leaves us exposed defensively. But we're always going to play to win. Sometimes, that leads to West Virginia having a counterattack. But that's our mentality, and we're not going to change that because of one result to one game."
 
All three of the remaining games will be streamed by ESPN+.

 
STORY LINES

• Baylor is readying to finish the regular season with three-straight road contests, first starting with a trip to Utah for a pair of road contests at BYU on Thursday, Oct. 17, and at Utah on Sunday, Oct. 20.
• The 2024 season marks the 28th 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 third 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 new Big 12 teams joining the conference this season, the Bears will only play 11 of the 15 other opponents this season. The Bears will face all four of the new schools, Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah. BU will not face Cincinnati, UCF, Kansas or Kansas State in regular season play.
• The Bears are 7-6-3 so far on the season, with four of BU's losses coming against ranked or receiving votes opponents (No. 18 Mississippi State, No. 22 Iowa, No. 15 Oklahoma State and RV Texas Tech). The Bears most recently fell against West Virginia, 2-0.
• Baylor has a 33 person roster this season and features 25 returners and eight newcomers. 
• Returning to the squad for the first time since the 2022 season in fifth-year Marissa Gray. After working for the past year and applying to PT school, Gray re-joined the Bears to use her fifth year of eligibility. She hasn't seen playing time since the 2019 season due to injury but returns to the pitch as a veteran on the backline. 
• This season the Bears roster features two international student-athletes for the first time since the 2017 season. Salma Simonin returns to Baylor from Manchester, United Kingdom and Hilary Washington joins the Bears from Wellesley, Ontario, Canada.
• Tyler Isgrig leads the Bears so far this season in points with 16, off of five goals and six assists. She has played the fifth most minutes so far this season (1286). 
• The junior forward, Isgrig, currently sits at fifth in most career assists in BU's record books with 18 so far with assists from both TCU and Baylor. 
• Joining Isgrig with multiple goals this season are Ashley Merrill, Hallie Augustyn, Hannah Augustyn and Callie Conrad, while Kai Hayes has one goal. BU has two team goals this year from own goals, including one against Colorado.
• In the Bears' 4-0 win over Arizona State, four different Bears scored for the second time this season. It also marks the first time since 2019 the Bears have scored four or more goals in three games in a season.
• Azul Alvarez has posted five shutout wins this season, with a career-high nine saves twice last week in the Bears' 4-0 victory over Arizona State. 
• Alvarez and Conrad have picked up the Bears' only Big 12 conference weekly award so far this season, being named Goalkeeper and Offensive Player of the Week (8/28). 
• Baylor is 1-2 all-time against BYU, falling 4-0 last season against the Cougars. 
• BU is 1-1 all-time against the Utah Utes, last facing them in 2003 and falling 3-2.
• Baylor is currently sitting at No. 46 in the RPI rankings. The Big 12 as a whole has eight teams sitting in the top 50 in RPI rankings.