Texas NCAA DI Women's Soccer Review 10/4: Baylor go top, Horns stay perfect and Aggies flounder

Welcome to The Striker Texas' weekly NCAA soccer recap, women's DI edition.

The rundown

Last Thursday night, an undefeated and much-hyped Texas Tech traveled down to Waco, TX to face off against Big 12 upstarts Baylor. 

Quickly, the Red Raiders found themselves in trouble. Ten minutes in, Taylor Moon calmly slotted in her fourth of the season from an Elizabeth Kooiman cross. Tech were able to find an emphatic response. Kirsten Davis tied things up with her 11th goal of the season in the 38th minute, and then Charlotte Teeter completed the turnaround for the Red Raiders in the 56th minute. 

As much as Tech coach Tom Stone can be proud of his players' reaction to going 1-0 down, he’ll be devastated at how they crumbled at 2-1 up. In the 61st minute, a slick team move freed up Anthony Mackenzie who prodded the ball into space so that Olivia Mack could drop back and scoop the ball home for a game-changing Baylor equalizer. 

The final blow came 13 minutes later when Gabby Mueller launched an audacious shot from way downtown that cruised over Maddison White in the Tech goal, before clinking against the post and rebounding in. The 3-2 win gives the Bears a perfect start to the Big 12 season, and keeps them top of the standings on win percentage but not overall record.

 Tech capped off a disappointing week by then taking I-35 south to Austin on Sunday, where they lost a tightly fought 1-0 match to Texas. A huge amount of credit has to go to Longhorn defenders Emily Cox and Emma Regan. The duo played all 90 minutes in the shutout, limiting the Red Raiders to just two shots on goal. 

Julia Grosso’s finessed shot, that careered in off Tech midfielder Jodie Harr’s head before arriving in the back of the net, was the only goal of the game. The Canadian gold medalist is now up to five goals for the Longhorns in their impressive start to 2021.

Before edging out Tech, Texas played a nervy 1-1 with Texas Christian University on Thursday night. The 2020 Big 12 champions took the early lead thanks to an outstanding strike from Camryn Lancaster. Trinity Byars then got the Horns level in the second half, but even after overtime neither team could break the deadlock. TCU goalkeeper Lauren Kellet made a career high eight saves in a result that will probably please both head coaches. 

“This has always been a tough place for us and it was tough again tonight,” said TCU coach Eric Bell. “The first half was pretty even. They came out in the second half and did some things that had us on our back foot and they scored. We were able to fix some things. We were able to create some things in the second half and overtime, but we have to figure out a way to win the game.”

In out of conference play, TCU ran out easy winners over Houston on Sunday night. The Horned Frogs won 3-1 in Fort Worth, with two goals from Gracie Brian and a second of the week for Lancaster. 

Elsewhere, the Aggies' miserable start to the SEC continued when they fell 3-1 at home to Tennessee. Texas A&M took an early second half when Jai Smith squeaked the ball home from 18 yards. But the Vols fought back and scored three goals in 20 minutes to take a commanding lead by the 76th minute of the match. The Aggies are now 1-3 in conference play.

“They were more physical,” said A&M coach G Guerriei. “You’ve got to give Tennessee credit, they played well. They scored three goals all from physical advantages in that particular matchup. Two goals that went in off the crossbar and one that was just a crowd of people in front of Kenna (Caldwell). I don’t know what she saw there.”

In Conference USA, Rice fell 2-0 away to Western Kentucky. The Owls managed to hold on top spot in the West despite the loss. North Texas missed an opportunity to close ground on Rice by dropping a game 1-0 in overtime to UT San Antonio. Abby Kassal’s 94th minute penalty kick the only thing that could separate the two sides. 

Player of the week: Trinity Byars, UT

The headline-grabbing holy trinity of Byars, Missimo and Grosso have been dubbed ‘Run BMG’ by the Longhorns faithful. The trio have combined for 77% of UT’s goals this season (16 out of 22). This week, I’d like to put the spotlight on ‘B’.

Byars broke a school record this week when she scored against TCU. The goal was her sixth in successive games for the Horns; the previous record of five had been held by Niki Arlitt since 2007. 

The freshman forward from Richardson, Texas then set up Grosso for the winning goal against Tech with her seventh assist of the season. Byars' brilliant start to college soccer has been integral to helping Texas to its best performance in the opening four rounds of Big 12 play since 2017. 

Goal of the week: Gabby Mueller, Baylor

I’ve said before that winning goals always get bonus points from me in regards to taking the illustrious ‘goal of the week’ mantle. Mueller’s memerizing missile from 38 yards out is one of the most stunning match-winning goals you will see this season. From that distance, it has to be a really special hit to completely reduce the adequacy of the goalkeeper’s positioning.

Luckily for Baylor fans, the hit was that special. Haters will dock points because it rebounded off Tech keeper Maddison White before going in — but personally, I think the pinball off the crossbar and into the keeper before hitting the net only increases its uniqueness.