BATON ROUGE, La. — No. 22 Baylor Soccer (5-1-0) kept its first clean sheet of the 2026 season on its way to a 2-0 win over the LSU Tigers (1-5-1) on Thursday night.
Wingers Grace White and Theresa McCullough scored for the Bears in the first and second halves, respectively. White is now the joint leading scorer on the team, tying fellow winger Lauren Omholt with three goals each. McCullough is now tied with Omholt for the team lead in points with eight apiece.
The Bears of Betty Lou are also now 4-0 against the SEC this year and have pieced together three straight wins after their only loss of the campaign 11 days ago.
Baylor had a tactical puzzle to solve in the bayou, with the Tigers putting a lot of pressure on the Bears early.
“It’s a super hard place to play. They're a good team, really good team. I thought they played really well tonight. They made it really difficult for us,” said Baylor head coach Michelle Lenard after the game. “A lot of tactical things that we had to try to solve. Again, our team just showed great resilience … So really proud of the result. Really big for us.”
Specifically, the Bears were struggling to string passes together and create with their possessions for the first 30 minutes. Once the team made some adjustments — the players, mind you, not just the staff — the chances came quickly and with quality.
Omholt kept a ball in on the end line in the 28th minute with a cutback that found the feet of Callie Conrad. Conrad’s shot went just wide of goal.
A minute later, Aryanna Jamison won a free kick that Hess eventually floated into the box for Grace White. White’s glancing header went off the post, and she was offside, but it was a good set piece idea.
Five minutes later, White would find the back of the net from open play. Kate Runyon played Sydney Miller down the left wing where Miller sent a lofted cross into the box. White faded her near post run toward the far post to connect with the cross. White’s slow, looping header was perfectly placed and bounced off the goal line and into goal as the LSU keeper and a defender could only watch helplessly. 1-0 Baylor.
“Great goal,” said Coach Lenard. “Right now we’ve got kids coming off the bench scoring goals. I mean, that's really special, right? Like every time I change the lineup and somebody's now coming off the bench instead of starting, they come in and get a goal. Grace is capable of scoring all types of goals. It was really fun to see her get that one tonight.”
Baylor took the 1-0 lead into halftime and came out still in control of the game, though LSU did put pressure on the Green and Gold.
First, Nyela Calnek picked up a yellow for tripping a Tiger that got past her in the 51st minute. Whether that was a tactical foul or an innocent trip, in the end it was a chance taken care of by the Bears.
Five minutes later, Azul Alvarez would make a convenient save on an LSU corner kick, with the headed effort coming straight at her.
Then there was the video review for a handball just outside the Bears' box, which was not awarded.
Video review giveth and video review taketh away, at least when it comes to sticking with the call on the field. Lauren Omholt was denied a fourth goal of the season in the 68th minute when she was ruled offside by mere inches on a counterattack after being played in by Theresa McCullough.
But the Bears persevered despite the disappointment.
“We're just trying to continue having the mentality that the score in the game or whatever just happened doesn't really matter,” said Coach Lenard. “It's about what's going to happen next... Whatever happens, we’ve got to keep going at the same intensity. And I thought we did a great job of that tonight.”
McCullough would be the one to find insurance for the Bears, taking advantage of a crazy sequence to score the coolest goal of the season for Baylor.
Let me walk you through it: Miller to McCullough down the sideline. McCullough one-touch back to Miller. Miller one-touch down the sideline to Hess. McCullough cuts inside. Hess crosses into the box. McCullough gets a small touch on the cross before it collided with Runyon centrally. The ball bounces off of Runyon back to McCullough, who hits it first time across the face of the keeper and into the back of the net. 2-0 Baylor. Pure cinema.
Azul and the defense kept the clean sheet through to the end to cap off a very impressive performance from Baylor on the road. The Bears were challenged, changed formations and tactics multiple times, and found ways to get their jobs done.
“A lot of the game we were in a 4-4-2, like a 4-1-3-2. Late in the game, we shifted to a 3-1-4-2. We started in a 4-3-3. And it wasn't pretty at every moment, you know, but we found a way to solve problems and provide cover where we needed to provide cover. And then we had some great individual moments from defenders to make blocks, make tackles, do the things it takes to win these types of games.”
Baylor has the rest of this week off before they finish up non-conference play next week at home against Marquette on Thursday and at Oral Roberts next Sunday.
