PROVO, Utah – Despite controlling possession for much of the match, No. 13 BYU women’s soccer gave up a late goal and fell to No. 23 Santa Clara 2-1 on Saturday afternoon at a snowy South Field.

“We had a lot of the run of play in the second half and ultimately, it led to three shots,” said BYU head coach Jen Rockwood. “That’s just not good enough against a team like Santa Clara, with how dangerous they are.”

After the score was knotted at one for most of the match, the Broncos’ Julie Doyle found a hole in the Cougar defense and scored the deciding goal in the 88th minute.

“We scored nice and early,” Rockwood said. “We had lots of opportunities, and we just kind of sat back and, I felt, wasted most of the first half. That was really frustrating.”

The Cougars grabbed the early 1-0 lead off a successful penalty kick from Mikayla Colohan in the fifth minute. Colohan slipped the ball just passed the goalie’s fingers and into the bottom right corner of the net for her fifth goal of the season and 29th of her career.

Santa Clara wouldn’t let the Cougars hold onto the lead for long. The Broncos’ Kelsey Turnbow tied the match at one in the 13th minute with a shot off her left foot that flew into the top left corner of the net, just over the outstretched fingers of BYU goalie Cassidy Smith.

In the second half, BYU was unable to capitalize on opportunities from Colohan, Brecken Mozingo and Cameron Tucker. For the match, the Cougars had 12 shots and only four on goal, while allowing seven shots on goal of the Broncos’ 10. 

“It was new for us not to attack and feel very tentative in how we were attacking,” Rockwood said. “Unfortunately, that’s what we’ve got to learn from. Hopefully, we can be refocused, get back to work and work a little harder next week.”

With the loss, BYU moves to 4-3 on the season and 2-1 in WCC play.

BYU will look to bounce back from Saturday’s setback when it hosts UVU in the UCCU Crosstown Clash on March 17 at 4 p.m. The match between the Cougars and Wolverines will be broadcast live on BYUtv and through the BYU Sports Network – BYU Radio 107.9 FM/BYU Cougars App. 

PROVO, Utah – No. 13 BYU women’s soccer will permit a limited number of spectators at Saturday’s game, March 13 at 1 p.m., against No. 23 Santa Clara.

The game will be available to watch on BYUtv. BYU Sports Network radio coverage will be carried on BYU Radio 107.9 FM, with audio play-by-play also streaming on the BYU Cougars app and at BYUCougars.com/LiveRadio for both games.

IN THE RANKINGS. BYU is ranked No. 13 in the National Soccer Coaches Association Poll.  In the TopDrawerSoccer national rankings, BYU is ranked No. 20. Many of the teams ranked higher than BYU played a fall soccer season.

LAST TIME ON THE FIELD. BYU women’s soccer head coach Jennifer Rockwood secured her 400th career win with BYU’s 3-1 victory over LMU Saturday, March 6 on the road. All-American Mikayla Colohan scored the first goal of the game off BYU’s first penalty kick of the season, in the 26th minute. A minute before halftime, UCLA transfer Brecken Mozingo scored the second goal to put BYU up 2-0 over the Lions. In the 59th minute, Rachel McCarthy scored BYU’s third goal of the game off an assist from Ashton Brockbank. LMU remained scoreless until a late goal in the 78th minute.

No. 13 BYU (4-2-0, 2-0-0 WCC) vs No. 23 Santa Clara (2-0-0, 2-0-0 WCC)

• Saturday, March 13, at 1 p.m., at South Field
• Broadcast: BYUtv
• Radio: BYU Sports Network/BYU Cougars App/107.9 FM
• Radio play-by-play: Greg Wrubell

THE BRONCOS. Santa Clara is undefeated on the season. The Broncos had their first two games postponed or cancelled, then opened their season with a 2-0 win over Portland on Feb. 27. The Broncos are coming off a 2-0 win against Saint Mary’s last Saturday. In the 2019 season, Santa Clara finished 15-6-2 (7-0-2 in West Coast Conference play). The Broncos fell to USC in the third round of the NCAA tournament. They were ranked second in the WCC, right after BYU.

COUGARS VS. BRONCOS. The last time BYU and Santa Clara met was on Oct. 5, 2019, which ended in a 2-2 tie after two overtime periods. The Cougars gave up a pair of goals in the first half, but were able to equalize in the second, forcing extra time and then resulting in the draw. It was the only game BYU didn’t win all of last season, outside of the elimination loss to Stanford in the NCAA Tournament. The Cougars are 2-7-5 all-time against Santa Clara and will take on the Broncos again later in the month, on March 31 in Santa Clara.