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Baylor Soccer

Baylor Soccer loses national ranking | Big 12 Soccer Roundup | Week 8

October 12, 2021
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Baylor soccer dropped out of the United Soccer Coaches poll after an 0-1-1 road trip through the sunflower state last week. The formerly #23 Bears lost a bad match to Kansas 2-1 on Thursday, then followed that up with a much better performance in Manhattan against Kansas State.

The green-and-gold received 42 votes in the poll this week, good for what would be 27th place. TCU is once again the highest-ranked Big 12 team at #11, while West Virginia fell to #21 and Texas makes its first appearance of the year at #25.

The Bears just couldn’t find the back of the net enough in Kansas, and they left the state with one solitary, underwhelming point added to the standings. It was a very disappointing road trip after a 3-0-0 start to Big 12 play for the Bears, but both Kansas teams did some damage to another conference title contender last week.

So, let’s take another look around the Big 12 soccer landscape to see how these teams earned their rankings in this week’s roundup.

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Big 12 Standings after Sunday’s games (10/10/21) 

West Virginia was making the reverse road trip of Baylor and headed into the week at #9 nationally. They might not have struggled as much as the Bears in either game, but Thursday night saw the Mountaineers draw 1-1 with KSU while Sunday was a tough double-overtime loss against the Jayhawks. 

WVU is now 2-1-1 in conference play, the same as Baylor, though the Bears have played #11 TCU already and Oklahoma State already. The Mountaineers have Texas Tech coming to Morgantown on Sunday the 17th for their next match.

Kansas had themselves a massive week. Sitting listlessly at 0-4-0 in Big 12 play with then #23 Baylor and #9 West Virginia visiting back to back, the team could have folded. Instead, they shocked Baylor early and defended their lead well for a 2-1 win. Then they battled with WVU through overtime before star forward Brie Severns sent a beautiful curler into the top right corner in the last 10 seconds of the match for the 2-1 win.

The Jayhawks saved their season against some of the toughest competition, and look forward to a one-game week with a trip to Oklahoma on Thursday. 

For their efforts this past week, Severns and Raena Childers brought home attacker and freshman of the week respectively.

Kansas State was looking better than their in-state rivals through week 7, but they are still a young program looking to grow. Their back-to-back draws against ranked Baylor and WVU were a great sign of that growth. This week they make a trip through the sooner state with the Pokes on Thursday and OU on Sunday.

Success on that trip should be that much easier to find with now back-to-back Big 12 keeper of the week Alaina Werremeyer starting in goal. Her 13 saves against Baylor set a program record.

The league leaders, Texas, played a single game on Thursday night against Iowa State. They cruised to a 2-0 victory to remain undefeated in league play and reach 13 points on the season.

The Longhorns have another single game week this week with a trip to Waco on the schedule. The Bears vs Longhorns tilt will have huge implications for the Big 12 regular-season title race.

Iowa State will be hoping to bounce back from that loss with home matches against Texas Tech and #11 TCU. Those will be tough matches, but any positive results will help them qualify for the conference tournament in Round Rock.

TCU got back on track after a 1-1-1 start against KU, BU and UT. The Frogs beat Oklahoma 2-0 and thrashed Oklahoma State 3-0 to improve to 3-1-1. They are back in the top 3 of the conference ahead of a big top 25 matchup at WVU Thursday. Then they visit Iowa State on Sunday.

Frogs’ defender Brandi Peterson also won Big 12 defender of the week for her role in TCU’s course-correcting shutouts. 

Texas Tech, who faces Iowa State on Thursday night, is coming off of a 1-1 tie with Oklahoma State last Thursday. After a 2-0-0 start, they have fallen to 2-2-1, and have somewhat fallen out of the race for 1st place. The Red Raiders can still greatly influence it when they visit Morgantown on Sunday.

The Oklahoma State Cowgirls had a tough week drawing the Raiders in Lubbock and losing 3-0 to TCU in Fort Worth. Their one game this week will be another grind-it-out kind of contest with Kansas State visiting Stillwater on Thursday.

Lastly, the Pokes' rivals Oklahoma have Kansas and Kansas State visiting this week, after dropping to 0-4-0 in the Big 12 last Thursday at WVU. With the way the sunflower state teams are playing right now, the Sooner might find themselves 0-6-0 very soon unless they make some changes.

As we pass the halfway point of conference play, the contenders are starting to show themselves, but any team can compete on any given night. The team that is the most consistent and has the most fight each night the rest of the way will be the team that takes it home.

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Baylor Soccer loses national ranking | Big 12 Soccer Roundup | Week 8

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