Baylor Soccer Stumbles in 2-1 Loss to SMU

WACO, Texas — Baylor Soccer dropped a disappointing match to the SMU Mustangs 2-1 thanks to a pair of second half goals from the visitors. 

The Bears looked tired for much of the night and the Mustangs made the most of Baylor’s mistakes, scoring on counterattacks in the 54th and 61st minutes. Ashley Merrill slammed a goal in off the crossbar with just seven minutes left to draw one back, but the Bears could not complete the late comeback.

“I thought we started slow,” said Baylor head coach Michelle Lenard. “Too many cheap turnovers, too many simple errors in the midfield. I mean, honestly, we looked tired.” 

Being a bit tired, Baylor took time to grow into the game through the first half. The Mustangs muddled the midfield and made early attacking options scarce for the Bears.

SMU put a handful of shots on goal forcing Ashlee Zirkel into 4 saves in the first frame. 

The Green-and-Gold would settle in and flip the script on the visitors though. About 20 minutes into the half, Baylor started to progress the ball down the wings and started to get looks on the SMU goal.

In the 24th minute, Ava Colberg made a nifty move around her defender on the right wing and picked out Tyler Isgrig near the top center of the 18-yard box. Isgrig was swarmed by multiple Mustangs and could not get a shot away.

The pair worked another chance at combination play on the right side just a minute later but this time the pass was not completed.

After the first half hydration break, the Bears kept the pressure up thanks in large part to some key substitutes. 

Freshmen Theresa McCullough and Adriana Merriam ran hard at the SMU defense and caused some real problems combining with starting center forward Skylar Zinnecker.

“Adriana, Theresa, Callie, they all came in and made a difference,” Coach Lenard said after the game. “They’re still young and we’re still not getting the final piece from them but I know those three kids are capable of scoring and they’re going to, or getting assists.”

In the 29th minute, Zinnecker cut in from the left wing and sent a curling shot over the SMU crossbar. It was a good look on goal.

Ten minutes later, McCullough similarly found a dangerous position on the right side with the ball at her feet, but a Mustang defender cut it out.

In the 41st minute, Baylor earned a corner — one of 10 on the night — and the SMU keeper could not clear it. However, after the ball bounced around for a few tense seconds, the Ponies cleared it.

“It’s great to have 10 corners if we’re peppering them with 30 shots,” said Coach Lenard, “But most of our chances are coming from wide areas that result in a corner, that’s telling me that we’re not playing through them. We’re going around them and then all the crosses are getting cut out for corner kicks.”

Halftime came with the scoreline at 0-0, and it felt like the Bears would carry the building forward momentum into the second half.

And that's how the second half started, with Green-and-Gold aggression. But just eight minutes into the half, SMU pounced on a counterattacking chance.

The Mustang’s leading scorer punched a shot by Ashlee Zirkel at the near post from the left side. 1-0 SMU.

Just seven minutes later, the lead was doubled as Zirkel was caught in a weird position when a counterattack came toward her. Leah Chancey for the Ponies sent a shot off of Zirkel’s fingertips and into the back of the Baylor net. 2-0 SMU.

“The second [goal] was clearly a goalkeeper error and she’s better than that,” said Coach Lenard. “The reality is that she’s done extremely well all season, we should be able to get past one goalkeeper error.”

The Bears fought hard to erase the now two-goal deficit and worked some good chances through the final 29 minutes, but they just were a step slow physically and mentally.

That didn’t stop the Green-and-Gold from threatening the SMU goal.

In the 70th minute, a Baylor corner pinged around the Ponies' box and loud shouts arose for a handball from the Bears. Nothing would be called, though it likely should have been.

Then in the 75th minute, Jenna Patterson danced through the box and sent a shot pinging off of the left SMU post and out of play.

The breakthrough for the Bears would come at last in the 83rd minute when Ashley Merrill fought the SMU keeper to force the ball toward Skye Leach on the opposite side of goal. Leach’s header somehow fell to the feet of Merrill who slammed the ball off of the SMU crossbar and in for a Baylor goal. 2-1 SMU.

The Bears pushed frantically for an equalizer, but they could not find one in just seven minutes. The Ponies held on for a 2-1 win.

So where do the Bears go from here?

“We’re going to have to do a little damage control over the next couple of days and build their confidence back up,” said Lenard. “We need to come out Sunday, we need to be hungry, we need to be focused, we need to be rested and ready.”

Specifically, the physical recovery is what Baylor will be looking to get right heading into the weekend. They were a bit slow and tired tonight, which led to an above-average number of mistakes physically and mentally.

“As long as we can figure out the recovery piece, especially for the back line — to be fair to them, they didn’t play well tonight but they’ve also played more minutes than anyone else on our team. We’ve rarely rotated our backline and it’s catching up with them.”

There was clear disappointment with the performance from the coach and the players. They know they are better than the product they put on the field tonight. Now they just need to get right and prepare for Abilene Christian on Sunday.

WotM — Theresa McCullough — The freshman winger was a spark off of the bench to help get the Bears onto the front foot when they needed to be.

Up Next — Abilene Christian on Sunday, September 10th at 7 PM CST (on ESPN+)