Baylor Soccer is a Big 12 Sleeper Because of these Stats

WACO, Texas — There are nine new faces in the Baylor Soccer camp as head coach Michelle Lenard’s squad prepares for the rapidly approaching season. From last year’s squad there are seven players not returning to the banks of the Brazos river.

Last year, the Bears registered 18,848 minutes played across 19 games. The Green and Gold return 91% of those minutes to the 2024 team along with 188 of 209 starts. 

For a full breakdown of minutes, starts, goals and assists returning versus leaving consult the table below:

Minutes can always be replaced, but productive minutes are much tougher to find. The productive minutes that Baylor lost were from forward Jenna Patterson and goalkeeper Makinzie Short.

Patterson played 799 minutes and finished her final collegiate season with five assists and one goal. That comes out to roughly one goal contribution every three halves, a mark good for third on the team behind points leader Tyler Isgrig and goals leader Ashley Merrill. 

There is one exception here, departing midfielder Micah Beasley scored once last year in just 105 minutes of game time. That would put her goal contributions per-90 right behind Isgrig, but the volume is too small for that to be a fair metric for comparison.

For Makinzie Short’s part, her seven starts in goal resulted in a 3-3-1 record. She let in an average of 1.2 goals per game compared to Ashlee Zirkel’s 1.48 GAA with a record of 6-4-2. 

Zirkel is now a year more experienced and TCU transfer Azul Alvarez was brought in as well to replace the loss of the graduating Short.

Overall, the returning figures are incredibly healthy. Confidence in the attacking output of the 2024 Baylor Soccer team should be very high. And defensively, the Bears return all but one starter while having more depth than last season.

The Bears return all seven players that scored multiple goals in 2023 as well as five of six players with multiple assists. 

Coach Lenard will also have five players that averaged about one goal contribution every two games last season:

Freshmen forward Alysiah Lockette could be a new contributor in this regard, with top-three speed on the team and according to Coach Lenard “her closing speed may be the best” based on how well she reads the game. 

Not to be forgotten, 13-game starter Skylar Zinnecker will also look to take a step forward while maintaining her reputation as a great team player and an incredibly coachable player into her sophomore year.

The bottom line is that Baylor Soccer returns 31 out of 33 goals and 27 of 32 assists Fram last year. Expectations were already going to take a step up in Michelle Lenard’s third year, but returning 94% of your goals, 84% of your assists and 91% of your minutes from the previous season make this team a true sleeper in the Big 12.