WACO, Texas — No. 5 Seed Baylor Soccer prevailed over the Sun Belt Champion Texas State Bobcats in their NCAA Tournament first round matchup by a score of 3-0.
A first-half goal from graduate midfielder Kai Hayes created the initial separation, while second-half goals from Hallie Augustyn and Olivia Hess offered great insurance.
“We didn't come out with quite as much energy and control the game as we wanted,” said Baylor head coach Michelle Lenard after the game, “It was a little bit closer than we would have preferred it to be, but really happy with the adjustments at halftime.”
Despite the underwhelming first-half performance, the Bears found a way to grab the all-important first goal thanks to Hayes and junior winger Theresa McCullough. In the 36th minute, McCullough worked past her defender with a nice stop-and-start on the right wing before sending in the perfect cross for the 5-foot-4 Hayes to meet in the air. Hayes’ header was placed neatly in the bottom left of the goal, and the Bears took the lead.
1-0 Baylor.
When asked what the goal meant for her and her teammates, Hayes said, “That kind of thing definitely eases a little bit of first-round jitters.”
And as for the graduate midfielder’s mentality, attacking the ball in the air? It’s the same as her defense.
“Honestly, ‘over my dead body’ … that's something we say defensively, but offensively too. At the end of the day, it's get the ball in the back of the net and keep the ball out of the net.”
For her part, Michelle Lenard could not speak more highly of one of her team leaders.
“Kai would hit a brick if it was in the air, if she thought it was gonna help the team … Very well deserving of a goal like that.”
With halftime came adjustments that saw the Bears take easier control of the game and press a banged-up Bobcat squad past their limit.
Texas State did hold up for 15 minutes of the second period before the Bears found an insurance goal courtesy of Hallie Augustyn.
The senior defender picked up the scraps of sort of ‘audibled’ free kick where Tyler Isgrig pinged the ball across the field to freshman midfielder Olivia Hess, who lashed a powerful shot on the Texas State goal. The Bobcats’ keeper did well to make the initial save, but she could not control the ball before it fell to the poaching Augustyn.
2-0 Baylor.
Just five minutes later, in the 66th minute, Hess got her own goal. Junior winger Lauren Omholt got to the end line on the right wing and found Hess centrally. The freshman then flipped her hips and fired the ball into the left side of the goal.
3-0 Baylor.
Coach Lenard had plenty of praise for her star freshman after the game, saying, “Liv did a great job tonight. She's really grown as the seasons progressed, and because she's getting scouted regularly, the last four or five games have been really challenging because teams are man marking her, and they're double teaming her, and they're aware of what she's capable of… he's starting to understand better now how to work under those circumstances … We've also really encouraged and challenged her to be more physical defensively, because it is very physical League … She really stepped into that. I thought it was a big turning point for her tonight.”
The Bears could have gone up 4-0 in the 82nd minute when a video review awarded the Bears a penalty for a handball in the box. However, junior defender Nyela Calnek skied her attempt over the goal.
The Bears saw the final eight minutes out without incident and advanced to the round of 32 for the first time since 2018.
The No. 4 seed Wisconsin Badgers await the Bears on Thursday and the location of that game is undecided, pending the result of No. 1 seed Notre Dame’s first-round game against UIC tomorrow evening.
