Baylor Soccer Sunk by No. 25 Texas Tech, 2-0

WACO, Texas — Baylor Soccer suffered its third straight conference loss and third loss in its last four games as the No. 25 Texas Tech Red Raiders scored twice while keeping a clean sheet for a 2-0 win.

Tech’s leading goal scorer, Ashleigh Williams, scored her 11th and 12th goals of the season to make the difference for the visitors. The goals came in the 24th and 53rd minutes respectively.

The Bears have now scored just once in the last four games and have suffered three straight shutouts in Big 12 play with a combined scoring margin of 10-0. 

However, it must be noted that the opponents in those three conference games were the top three teams in the league. No. 6 BYU and No. 16 Texas hammered the Bears 4-0 each, and Texas Tech is No. 25 as previously mentioned.

“We’re playing the way you would expect a freshman and sophomore to play,” said Baylor head coach Michelle Lenard, “This team is growing up together and while we’ve taken strides forward this season, we haven’t jumped from freshman to senior.”

One area that is looking particularly lacking for the Green-and-Gold is the attack in the final third. While the opposing defenses have been tough and talented, the Bears’ play looks disjointed, tense, and lacking flow.

“Our decision making in the final third is still just really poor,” said Coach Lenard, “We’re continuing to try to look for the perfect chance... We want to score nice goals, but it’s not always going to be beautiful. You’ve got to be both [beautiful and ugly].”

In fact, in her halftime interview of this game, Coach Lenard said that her team was not taking the goal-scoring risks that they had planned to. 

Perhaps the Bears are looking for the obvious chances — the chances equally obvious to the defense — and not trusting their skills and instincts to react to risks or chances taken by their teammates.

There are other shortcomings for Baylor though. Lenard mentioned that currently, her team is lacking a true pivot to seamlessly switch play from one side of the field to the other. Having a good pivot eases congestion in attack and stretches the defense horizontally.

She also highlighted how the Bears need more from their outside backs, a position that is rather thin.

“We needed more from our outside backs to get involved in the attack and to switch the ball through our midfield to our outside backs.”

When you have limited bodies you trust, the ones you play with will tire more quickly. Plus, that “switching the ball through the midfield” part connects directly to the issue of lacking a pivot.

Coach Lenard also added after the game, “While it’s a team game and we want our team to be committed to playing together as a team, we need some individuals to take a little bit more responsibility.”

None of this is to say that the Green-and-Gold did not create goal-scoring chances today. The quantity and quality of those chances was just a clear step below that of their opponents. 

The first goal for Texas Tech came when Hannah Augustyn got beat down the right wing. Makinzie Short was in a bad position by coach Lenard’s admission and Ava Colberg was beaten to the cross by Williams for Tech. 1-0 Red Raiders.

The second goal was similarly disappointing with poor goalkeeper positioning playing a role. A random cross was sent in from left to right from the visitors. Williams, one of just two Red Raiders in the Baylor box, beat Hallie Augustyn to the ball to head it past Zirkel into the left side of the goal. Zirkel was perhaps too central in the frame making it too easy for Williams to beat her to the near post.

With those goals making it three decisive conference losses in a row, what was the message from coach Lenard to the team?

”The message is there’s still a lot of conference games to play and we have played the best three teams in the conference straight away. And while that’s not meant to be an excuse, it's obvious right now, that's not us.”

Acknowledging where you are and who you are should help the Bears figure out the steps they need to reach that level. In the meantime, they have the three toughest conference opponents out of the way and get to take a trip to face much more even competition in the Sunflower State next week.

Up Next — at Kansas on Thursday, September 28th at 7 PM CST (ESPN+)