Baylor Soccer Welcomes Arizona State to Waco for Senior Night Battle

WACO, Texas – Baylor Soccer (6-5-3, 1-3-2) is set to host Arizona State (7-3-3, 2-3-1) and West Virginia (9-2-2, 5-0-1) this Thursday and Sunday to close out the home regular season slate. With five games left to play, the Bears are in a precarious place in terms of both the Big 12 Tournament and the NCAA tournament. Baylor currently sits at 14th in the conference, two spots below the cutoff line for the Big 12 Tournament. The Bears’ RPI sits at a solid 40th in the nation, in the bubble conversation for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Thursday’s contest against the Sun Devils is also Senior Night, so there is potential for high emotion on top of the increasing pressure to win. Seven seniors will be honored: Blythe Obar, Ashley Merrill, Haven Terry, Kate Zimmerman, Ava Colberg, Jordan Ryan and Marissa Gray. 

On Wednesday, Obar, Gray and head coach Michelle Lenard spoke with local media about the stretch run of games and what this class of seniors has meant to the program.

“We're just really excited for this group of seniors,” Coach Lenard said. “They've had a huge impact on the transition that this program has gone through in the past two and a half years. I personally am close with all of them and really going to miss all of them when this all comes to an end. They've really had a big effect on the change in style of play, and I’m really proud of them for what they've done and the foundation that they've laid here for the future of Baylor soccer. But we're more proud of them for the people that they are.”

Now, a quick little bit about each of the seniors: 

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  Haven Terry celebrates a Baylor goal with Ashley Merrill against Kansas in 2022.
  Ava Colberg has 69 games played currently. She has the most appearances on this team and hasn’t missed a single game during her Baylor career. Availability is the best ability, but she has also brought a fire to outside back. The closest I have seen the Bears come to an actual fight on the field was last year against UTSA when Colberg was wrapped up or hit around her neck and shoved the Roadrunner to the ground in response. That was warranted, in my opinion. Colberg’s play has also been noteworthy, being snubbed of a place on the Big 12 All-Freshman team back in 2021 and earning over 5000 minutes of game time in the Green and Gold.
• Marissa Gray has played just two seasons in her Baylor career: 19 games in 2019 and all 14 games this season. The four years in between were marred by injuries and hard recovery journeys, but she made it back to play at a high level for the Bears again. This is a great end to a collegiate athletics career for a great person and teammate.
• Haven Terry has 38 appearances under her belt as a Bear, as well as a pair of goals and three assists. One of those goals was an overtime winner against SMU in 2021 – an absolutely electric finish.
• Kate Zimmerman has made 16 appearances for Baylor, totaling 392 minutes so far. I will always remember Zimmerman getting knocked out of the second home game I ever covered, thanks to a head-on-head collision that drew blood and saw Zimmerman carted off. That was a heck of a way to emphasize the physicality of the game to a new media member. Oh, and she was back playing just three weeks later.
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  Jack Mackenzie - SicEm365

  Kate Zimmerman and Jordan Ryan smile for the camera before a game vs UNC in Austin, TX in 2022.
  Jordan Ryan has not yet seen the field in competition for the Green and Gold, working hard out of the spotlight to make the team better on and off the field.
• Ashley Merrill has made 50 appearances to date for Baylor, scoring 19 goals and racking up five assists. Teammates and coaches love her. Opponents and refs don’t. She might be the biggest competitor on a team full of them. She holds the program record for the fastest hat trick with three goals in just under four minutes last year against Abilene Christian. Her 12 goals in the 2023 season are the most by a Bears since Dana Larsen in 2012.
• Blythe Obar has been out this season, recovering from a torn ACL, but she has the opportunity to return next season. While Coach Lenard expects to have her marshal the defense next year, Obar will still be honored on Thursday night alongside Merrill. The pair played together for a long time before transferring to Baylor from DBU. Obar has appeared in the Green and Gold 36 times in the previous two seasons, recording the second most minutes played in each of those campaigns. 

Now, back to the task at hand, the Bears must balance the emotions that come with a crucial game paired with Senior Night. 

“It's a huge game, and we know that,” says Marissa Gray, “We've had discussions as a team and amongst each other that we need to do our job the next couple of weeks in order to make the [Big 12] tournament and hopefully get to the NCAA tournament. So it's just kind of being intentional with that, but also not allowing that weight to kind of carry over and put a lot of pressure on us.”

Sitting 14th in the Big 12 leaves plenty of work to do for Baylor and, therefore, pressure, but this is work that the Bears are capable of. Arizona State sits at 114th in RPI and is a great opportunity for Baylor to get back in the win column. Beyond that, the Bears still have trips to Utah (67th PRI) and Iowa State (223rd RPI) left on the schedule, which are all good chances to move up the conference standings.

Coach Lenard’s message to the team is clear: “Every game right now matters for us significantly, and we need to get some results in the next few games.”

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Marissa Gray clears a ball against TCU in 2024.

The other games on the schedule are even bigger opportunities since wins would not only move them up the conference standings but could also move them up the RPI rankings and improve the Bears’ position on the NCAA Tournament bubble.

West Virginia has the best RPI remaining on the Bears’ schedule at No. 26, while BYU is where Baylor would like to be at No. 33.

Coach Lenard has consistently blocked out the future schedule to focus solely on the game in front of the team, so when it comes to Arizona State on Thursday, here is what to expect:

“We feel like it's a good matchup for us, an opportunity for us to score some goals, which we've needed to do. We've played some really good games and just not come away with the result. And so we're at that point in the season where we can't let it slip us by anymore.”

“Both of them try to play both of them build. Both of them have a big, expansive shape. Both of them have some individual players that can hurt you if you're not aware of them. They're less direct and physical than some of the other opponents in the conference.”

With that breakdown, there is not much to add. The Bears need to find a way to score multiple goals in a Big 12 game for the second time in what will be seven attempts on Thursday. And then they will need to start replicating that game in and game out, not because the Bears cannot shut teams out, but because a bigger margin for error might be necessary to achieve their goals. So, step one is Thursday night.

“We just want to see them go out on a high note, make the conference tournament, and we still have a shot at the NCAA tournament,” said Coach Lenard, “So that's something that's at the top of the list for us right now.”

Bonus Quotes:

Marissa Gray

• “West Virginia has always been a challenge, every single year. There's a lot of speed. They have a lot of talent, but I'm sure Arizona State is the same thing: a lot of speed, a lot of different tactics… especially now, later in the season, teams are trying new things or new players. You don't know what to expect, but just a lot of good soccer.”
• “I feel like it's gone by super fast, but also really slow… I don't know if it'll ever, like, fully hit me that I'm like, back, like, I'm playing and practicing… Like, who would have thought? Which is pretty cool.”
• “It's just so fun to be with all your best friends and go to the airport and do all those things.”
• “Of course, Senior Night is where you kind of experience all things, but you kind of have to shift your mindset to, ‘Okay, we have another game Sunday.’ So I think maybe Sunday after the game is when I'm like, ‘Oh man… maybe last time at Betty Lou’. Who knows? But it's bittersweet to say that as well.”

Blythe Obar

• “Watching, you know, Rissa and Hallie build out…  I'm kind of learning different things that maybe I wouldn't do, and maybe I would do, just like simple things. And then also, I'm learning to be more of a sideline supporter, I guess. “
• “I think one thing I've been impressed on is our work ethic. I think every year our work ethic has been getting better, and I think each year we're improving on different things that we were kind of lacking last year. “
• “Having the experience back there, considering it would have been a freshman instead of a fifth year [in Marissa]. So I think that that just makes a big difference.”

Michelle Lenard

• “It's been awesome having Marissa back. I can't say that anything's been surprising. We knew what Marissa was capable of… she alluded to questions in her own mind, ‘Am I gonna be able to come back after being out for a year?’ And she's done a great job to do that. We've been super intentional about managing her load and having proper expectations for how much she can play and when we can rest her. I think overall, we've handled that pretty well.”
• “You just have to compartmentalize at the right moments, right? … regardless of what day it is or how important this game may seem or not seem, or if it's a special occasion, it shouldn't affect us once the whistle blows. And that's easier said than done.”
• “When [Arizona State] lose the ball, they're going to have some spaces that we can attack. I think there's some good individual matchups for us in that game as well that we're hoping to exploit.”
• “Our girls are hungry.”
• “Blythe and I obviously have a lot of history together. Next year will be my sixth year to coach her, and so we go way back. She looks great. Her recovery has gone awesome. She's done all of her rehab the way that she's supposed to. She's healed up nicely.”
• “I know that part of [Blythe] wishes that she could play right now, but we all know it's what's best for her to wait … Obviously, Marissa is graduating, and Blythe comes back in with a ton of experience, a true ball winner, a leader; all these things are gonna be really critical in our back line. We have some really good young players that join the team next year, and that experience is gonna help them make that transition faster.”