WACO, Texas — No. 6 Baylor Soccer lost for the first time in the 2026 season, dropping a 3-1 contest to PAC 12 foe Texas State on Sunday night. The Bears conceded a pair of long-range goals, and that made the difference on a night where only senior winger Lauren Omholt could find the back of the net for the Green and Gold.
Baylor could not have started worse, with senior defender Bella James getting her pass intercepted about 20 yards outside the Baylor 18-yard box. Baylor keeper Azul Alvarez was far off her line at the top of the box, and Texas State’s Matsuri Tsutsui took her chance. One touch to get the ball out from her feet and then a shot past the diving Alvarez, who was still about ten yards off the goal line. 1-0 Bobcats inside of two minutes.
“I think she's too high, and we were talking about that,” said Baylor head coach Michelle Lenard after the game. “We're going to have to go back and look at that. We don't want to turn the ball over centrally like that, but it's going to happen, and so we've got to make an adjustment there.”
To the Bears’ credit, they responded as quickly as possible, equalizing through Lauren Omholt just ten seconds after play restarted.
Right off of the kickoff, Olivia Hess found Omholt running down the right wing. Baylor’s No. 5 got a step on the Texas State outside back and rocketed a shot over the near-side shoulder of the goalkeeper from eight yards out. 1-1 after 112 seconds of play.
“I honestly thought after we tied it up right away, we were going to be fine,” said Lenard. “You know we responded, we did what needed to do, and then we were fine most of the rest of the first half. Second half just did not come off the way we wanted it to. I don't think we executed the things we talked about at halftime very well. And then the last 10 minutes, we handled being down really poorly.”
Baylor did play well for the rest of the first half, with sophomore midfielder Olivia Hess rattling the crossbar with a shot that could have given Baylor a lead. However, the shot was a few inches too high, and the Bears didn’t create a better chance for the rest of the half.
The whole game was very physical, with Texas State picking up three yellow cards in the first half alone. Baylor senior forward Aryanna Jimison joined those Bobcats in the book with a yellow of her own. That card was reviewed for violent conduct and, luckily for the Bears, was not upgraded to a straight red card.
Overall, Texas State pressured the Bears into enough mistakes, keeping the Green and Gold off their game and capitalizing in key moments.
“Texas State deserves the credit. I thought they played really well. They had a good game plan. They executed it. They were a good team. We knew that going in. We just did not play well ... Texas State was organized, and they made it hard for us, and we needed better solutions.”
The better solutions were not found in the second half, with Baylor falling behind in the 56th minute and giving up an audacious third goal to the Bobcats in the 72nd minute for insurance.
The Bobcats’ eventual winner came from a set play, with the visitors being first to the second ball off of a free kick. Texas State’s Ava Kooker sent a shot across goal from right to left, and it would have sailed safely wide if not for Helen Alormenu being in the perfect place at the perfect time to redirect it back across goal. 2-1 Texas State with 34 minutes to play.
Omholt continued to be the brightest spot in the Baylor attack, winning a free kick extremely close to the box on the left wing. A yard or two closer to goal and it would have been a penalty.
Hess, who was well marked by the visitors for much of the game, found enough space to rattle the woodwork one more time in the 71st minute. When Jimison played a loose ball into the path of Hess, the preseason All-Big 12 team midfielder took a first-time shot that looked destined for the bottom left corner of goal before Texas State’s Caitlyn Draper made a fingertip save, deflecting the ball into the post and out of play.
A minute later, the Bears paid for another errant pass in the back line. This time, Texas State’s Helen Alormenu intercepted the ball at the midfield line, took a couple of dribbles into the Baylor half and let a shot fly from the edge of the center circle. Alvarez was near the top of the penalty arc this time and could not back track in time to make a play on the ball as it sailed over her head and into her goal. 3-1 Texas State with 18:10 to play.
“Clearly they scouted it. So we've got to make sure we make the correction,” said Coach Lenard after the game. “The girl executed it extremely well. We don't see people doing that very often, but once it happens to us once, we can't have it happen to us twice.”
From there, Baylor was chasing the game and could not make a breakthrough to force a nervy ending.
Omholt came closest with a headed effort from a tight angle on the right side, but that was with just over five minutes to play. It was nice service from Sydney Miller, but overall too little too late.
Texas State would hold on to their lead and complete the upset of the No. 6 Bears, 3-1.
“It certainly should have been a better performance from us,” said Lenard. “Not really sure why we were flat from the beginning and just caused ourselves a lot of problems. And so the message is we got to go back in the locker room and figure out what happened … Maybe dealing with the pressure of some of the recent attention. It's a lot … We tried to deal with that this week. I thought we were mentally ready for it, but we didn't look like it tonight. And unfortunately, we conceded bad goals too. I mean, smart goals from them, but bad moments [for us], situations we should not be in.”
There is plenty to be learned from an outing like this. The result hurts, and the way they played was lacking, but the schedule was built to test and to teach. The Bears have to learn how to deal with expectations and adversity to reach their championship goals.
“It's rare that everybody plays their best game on the same day, and it's rare that everybody plays their worst game on the same day. And I think today we had that day where we just didn't have anyone have a very good game,” said Lenard. “So a lot of it is just getting our team back in form.
“Just an overall poor performance that you know, in some ways, we're going to have to just flush and move on from because I think that's about as bad as it gets for us, probably.”
Baylor Soccer will return to action on Thursday in Austin as they square off with in-state rivals Texas at 7 p.m. on the SEC Network.
