Baylor Soccer Falls 3-0 in Physical Contest at No. 22 Iowa

IOWA CITY, Iowa — The No. 22 Iowa Hawkeyes (4-0-2) ended Baylor Soccer’s five-game winning streak with a 3-0 defeat of the now 5-2 Bears. 

A trio of second-half goals was the difference for Iowa who controlled the game practically from start to finish and heavily disrupted Baylor with an aggressive high-press. The Hawkeye goals came in the 57th minute from Rielee Fetty, in the 85th minute by Berit Parten and a 90th-minute penalty converted by Maggie Johnston.

Fetty’s goal came off of a short corner routine that saw Lauren Geczik with loads of time and space where the 18-yard box meets the end line. From there she sent a good lofted cross in for Fetty to hit home with a solid header. 1-0 Iowa.

While the Bears did adjust decently to the high press after halftime, the Hawkeyes' first goal was a gut punch to a team that was already moving off of their preferred style of play to get back in the game.

The more direct transition play that the Bears had to turn to did help create some chances. However, by the end of the match Iowa had outshot Baylor 21-7.

With those numbers, it is not a shock that the hosts found a second goal from open play late in the game to seal things. 

An awkward clearance attempt from Hallie Augustyn popped into the air and Iowa’s Parten got on the end of it, putting a header past Azul Alvarez. 2-0 Iowa.

Part of what helped the Hawkeyes force Baylor to mostly abandon building up slowly from the back was aggressive high pressure on the ball. The Bears were closed down extremely fast today and were muscled off of the ball many times in possession. Three key elements of this were Iowa’s ability, Baylor’s mistakes and the referee’s loose grip on the game.

The No. 22 Hawkeyes are a skilled group and hang their hat on their defense. However, the Bears were not making good decisions when trying to keep possession. It did not help that Iowa, despite racking up 18 fouls to Baylor’s eight, could have been called for at least ten further transgressions. 

The referees were by no means a primary reason why Baylor lost though. The Green and Gold will need to be more flexible in their approach sometimes and adapt more quickly when necessary like today. Creating a single chance of note in the first half was not good enough for a team aiming to make the NCAA tournament.

The second did bring brighter moments offensively. Callie Conrad, Tyler Isgrig and Adrianna Merriam did well to serve as targets for more direct play. Plus, Isgrig’s two shots were the best chances at scoring for Baylor all night.

First, just a few minutes into half two, the junior forward had a shot from the left side of goal in the box saved and parried into the path of Conrad. Conrad’s follow-up was blocked by a defender but it was a great chance for the Bears to take the lead.

Conrad then forced a video review later in the half to check whether or not she was fouled in the Iowa box. The review came back negative for Baylor.

Iowa then scored its first, but Azul Alvarez did well in goal to keep Baylor down just a single goal for a while.

The last couple of good chances for the Bears came before Iowa made the lead 2-0. Isgrig lofted a free kick across the box to Ashley Merrill leaping at the far right post, but the ball was too high for the senior to put on goal.

Then in the 84th minute, Isgrig got through on the left and sent a shot off of the crossbar.

With the physicality high and the frustrations mounting, Tyler Isgrig earned a yellow card for time-wasting as she did not agree with a referee’s decision. Not to be outdone, Merrill picked up a yellow in the last minute of the game putting a hard tackle on an Iowa player in the BU box for a penalty. 

Neither infraction was egregious, but neither was necessary. 

The penalty gave us our final score of 3-0 after Alvarez could not keep the penalty out despite getting a hand to it. 

The Bears now must regroup before their Big 12 opener this Thursday against Oklahoma State. The Cowgirls are currently undefeated at 6-0-1 and ranked No. 13 in the nation thought the Bears will be one of the two or three best teams they have faced so far this season.