Medeiros leads BYU past Alumni 7-2

PROVO, Utah – Elena Medeiros and Ashley Hatch scored two goals apiece to lead BYU women’s soccer to a 7-2 victory over a team comprised of BYU alumni at South Field Saturday night.

“I thought it was a great night for us,” head coach Jennifer Rockwood said. “We are fortunate to have so many great alumni that are close by that can come out and play.”

Medeiros scored the first of seven goals for BYU in the 11^th minute when she took a cross from Sarah Chambers and headed in a shot to the far side of the net.

Less than three minutes later in the 13^th minute, Niki Fernandes stole an errant pass from the defense and drilled a shot past the goalkeeper for the early 2-0 lead.

The Alumni would keep the game competitive scoring a goal of its own 30 seconds later when Jeni Willardson Viernes connected with a deflected ball off BYU goalkeeper Hannah Clark in the 14^th minute to cut BYU’s lead in half.

Medeiros found the back of the net midway through the second of three 30 minute periods to give BYU some breathing room at 3-1.

In the final period, Hatch scored two goals while Marissa Nimmer and Elisabeth Phillips each chipped in one goal. Viernes put in another goal for the Alumni’s second goal when she headed the ball just beyond the outstretched hands of BYU goalkeeper Hannah Clark in the 78^th minute from about five yards out.

“One of the things we wanted to do well tonight that we didn’t do well in the blue and white scrimmage was get forward quicker and get in behind the defense to go at the back line.” Rockwood said. “I thought we did a great job at that and created a lot of scoring opportunities and put away some nice goals." 

The game served as a nice tune-up before BYU kicks off the regular season on Aug. 22 on the road against Cal State Fullerton. Rockwood looks to make a few more improvements from now until the season opener.

”We need to be a little more accurate with our shots,” Rockwood said. “I thought we had some great runs far post that we just need to communicate a little better on the field and help each other out so they know where their teammate is.”

The Cougars open their season on the road at Cal State Fullerton on Aug. 22 at 7 p.m. PDT. The game can be heard on the Cougar IMG Sports Network on BYUcougars.com and the BYU Cougars iOS app.