1998 Women's Soccer Season Summary
A second straight appearance to the NCAA Championships, this year advancing to the "Sweet 16," and a no. 13 final national ranking by the NSCAA keynoted the smashing success of the 1998 BYU women's soccer season.
In November, BYU hosted one of 16 first round NCAA Championships contests, defeating Stanford in a 6-1 blowout.
In the second round, the Cougars traveled to Los Angeles, for a matchup against UCLA and advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time with a 2-0 shutout of the Bruins. In the "Sweet 16," BYU met the no. 2 team in the country, Santa Clara. The Broncos ended the Cougars' run with a 3-0 shutout over BYU. Santa Clara also eliminated the Cougars during the 1997 NCAA Championships in the first round of play.
The explosive BYU team finished the year with a 20-5, 5-1 (WAC) record, picking up six straight home victories against Weber State, Colorado, Portland State, New Mexico and Idaho Sate.
On the road, the Cougars had another winning season with huge wins against women's soccer powerhouses UMass, Cal Berkeley, Stanford, Michigan and Michigan State.
In 1998, BYU hosted the WAC Women's Soccer Championships where the Cougars lost a 1-2 sudden death double overtime battle to San Diego State in the title game. Junior forward Maren Hendershot picked up the MVP trophy at the championships.
Hendershot also captured her first All-America citation, named to the NSCAA Third Team. Teammate Shauna Rohbock picked up her third All-America honor by the NSCAA.
Additional honors were given to the two leading scorers on the team, Rohbock and Hendershot. Both were named to the NSCAA All-West Region First Team.
Rohbock, a senior from Orem, Utah, finished her college soccer career leading the team in scoring all four seasons. In 1998 she picked up 27 goals and nine assists for 57 points. Hendershot followed right behind with 44 points from 19 goals and six assists.
The Cougar team averaged 20.4 shots on goal, 2.83 goals per game and had 5.54 corner kicks per game.
BYU women's soccer fans poured into South Field, where the Cougars averaged 853 fans at home. The largest crowd 1,495 on September 11, saw BYU beat Colorado 5-2.
In two regular season games, the Cougar team scored season high seven goals - against Butler on Sept.25 and again on Oct.9 against Hawai'i.
BYU's 1998 season, its fourth as a Division I program, was superb. Head coach Jennifer Rockwood compiled another winning season and a second trip to the NCAA Championships. The Cougar program is on its way to becoming one of the nation's top women's soccer programs.
