Baylor Soccer Pushes Past Pepperdine 3-1 with Goals from White, Omholt & Bohannon
WACO, Texas — Baylor Soccer earned its fourth win in five games, topping the Pepperdine Waves 3-1 on Sunday night. In a bit of a mirror of the last home game against Texas State, Baylor scored in the first 70 seconds before conceding an equalizer inside of six minutes. Then the Bears scored two in the second half to earn the win, with a Pepperdine player getting sent off for denial of a goal-scoring opportunity.
Freshmen Grace White and Brynnlee Bohannon both scored for the Bears; the opener and the insurance goal, respectively. In between, senior winger Lauren Omholt kept her hot start to the season going, scoring her third goal of the campaign for the winner.
This is the second straight game at Betty Lou Mayes Field to see a pair of quick goals at the start of the game. Unlike against Texas State, the Bears struck first thanks to the hustle of seniors Callie Conrad and Lauren Omholt and Grace White’s finish.
Omholt first blocked a Pepperdine clearance on the right wing, then Conrad tracked that ball down and saved it off the end line. Omholt won the next race to the ball and picked out White right next to the penalty spot. White slotted the ball just to the left of the diving keeper and into the back of the net. 1-0 Baylor in just 69 seconds.
“Callie keeping that in on the end line down there, where it looked like [the defender] was just going to shield it out of bounds. Callie working really hard to find Lauren, and then just a nice little cut back from Lauren and a great run from Grace. We’ve got to get [Grace] in more of those situations,” said Baylor head coach Michelle Lenard after the game. “Great start from us. Score an early goal, good intensity, good pressing, create a chance, finish really good. Obviously, not happy about conceding within the next five minutes.”
Pepperdine would equalize within five minutes, with a cross from the Waves’ left wing pinballing off of multiple Baylor defenders before falling to an on-running Pepperdine attacker. Bella James made a great tackle on that Wave, but the ball fell to another player in orange who made a heavy touch, allowing Nyela Calnek a chance to boot the ball to safety. Except Calnek’s clearance went straight into the leg of the Pepperdine player in front of her, ricocheting past Baylor keeper Azul Alvarez and into the goal. 1-1 in the 6th minute. A brutal episode of pinball.
After that goal, Pepperdine held their own for the next 25 minutes before the Bears made a key adjustment and started causing problems for the Waves’ defense.
“We were giving way too much space between the lines, and so they were being able to exploit that. Our midfield was having trouble managing the space. It was just a matter of our backline stepping and holding,” said Coach Lenard. “Again, a consequence of being burnt a little bit against Texas. So we're learning some hard lessons on our back line right now. But what we can't do is overcompensate, play too deep. That creates too much space between the lines.”
With that adjustment to better execute the gameplay, the Bears poured forward and very nearly earned another lead.
First, in the 33rd minute, Aryanna Jimison won a bouncing ball along the left sideline, drove toward the end line and sent a great cross to Theresa McCullough on the back post. McCullough’s header, aimed back across goal, nailed the defender next to her in the face and went out of play.
Then right before halftime, substitute center forward Kate Runyon found fellow sub Caroline Staubach running off her shoulder to the left. The pass was right where it needed to be and Staubach had her choice of shooting or laying it off to McCullough on the far post. Staubach chose to lay if and McCullough sent it home, but she was offside. Staubach likely could’ve scored if she decided to shoot, but it is tough to fault the unselfishness.
After the halftime break, Baylor continued to look the better side, though both teams created chances. However, the game truly changed when Jimison pounced on a loose ball in the 63rd minute. It became a race between Jimison and one defender, with the Pepperdine player tugging harshly on Jimison’s jersey. Because of the tug, there was no room found for a shot on goal, and after playing on for two and a half more minutes, Baylor was granted a video review for denial of a goal-scoring opportunity. Coach Lenard was trying to utilize the new rule where coaches get to make two video challenges per game in matches that have video review available.
“This new challenge rule is weird, and we're trying to figure out how to do that. But the refs got it right. They came back and told us we could challenge it after all, and we were able to get that foul called back and a red card [given], which was very well earned by Lauren [Omholt] pressing and Aryanna counter-attacking.”
So with Pepperdine’s Emjae Soriano sent off and her team down to ten players on the field for the rest of the game, Baylor could tilt the field and find a winner.
It would not take much more than five minutes for the Bears to find the breakthrough. Jimison played McCullough down the right side and McCullough picked out Omholt across the Pepperdine box. Omholt had faded back from her marker and rose to head the cross home. 2-1 Baylor.
“It was a perfect ball by Theresa, and I was able to be right on the end of it, so it felt good,” said Omholt after the game.
That is a team-leading third goal for the senior winger to go with her two assists, giving her the team lead in points but also a goal contribution per game.
Then in the 85th minute, McCullough and Jimison would help create one more goal for the Bears. McCullough split a pair of Pepperdine defenders and, after holding things up for a second, played the ball into space for Jimison. Jimison sent a twirling first-touch cross into the box, forcing a diving parry from the goalkeeper. The ball then fell to freshman midfielder Brynnlee Bohannon, who powered the ball through the hands of the keeper and into the goal. 3-1 Bears.
“I was just trying to make sure I was there to follow no matter what,” said Bohannon after the game. “Ari's got a rocket shot, so you never know what's going to happen. So I was lucky to be there.”
The Bears saw out the final five minutes and moved to 4-1-0 now a quarter of the way through the 2026 season. With three non-conference games left, Baylor has found ways to win against some high-quality opponents without having a cupcake mixed into the schedule.
“We knew 100% it was going to be hard. We’re rebuilding our backline. We put difficult teams that are probably going to go win their conferences on our schedule. Teams that make the NCAA tournament every year. I think when you look at it, people sometimes underestimate these mid majors, but if you go around and look at what's happening around the country the last two weeks, you'll see that there are some very good mid majors, and so that's what we chose to do: play the best mid majors that we could. And maybe it's a little bit of a risk, but it makes us better.”
Now Baylor Soccer prepares to travel to Baton Rouge for what should be its toughest remaining test before Big 12 play starts. Baylor vs. LSU kicks off at 7 p.m. on Thursday and will be available to stream on SEC Network+.
