WACO, Texas — No. 11 Baylor Soccer (8-1-1) overcame an early one-goal deficit to defeat an upset-minded Oklahoma State (5-3-2) squad 2-1 thanks to goals from Aryanna Jimison and Noelle Sather.
For Jimison, this was her fourth goal of the season and her third in the last four games. The senior midfielder is now the joint-leading goal-scorer on the team and has sole possession of the overall points lead for the Bears with 11 points.
Sather, on the other hand, is practically a midseason addition to the team after missing the last seven Baylor games in order to represent her country, Canada, at the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in Poland. The junior midfielder wasted no time re-integrating to the squad, scoring the winner and her second goal of the season.
The Bears did give up an early goal yet again, continuing a worrying trend for the year. Oklahoma State attacker Laudan Wilson found space with the ball at the top left of the Baylor box, cut inside around a challenge from Jimison and unleashed a shot from just above the penalty arc before Olivia Hess could block it. Baylor goalkeeper Azul Alvarez was caught hopping the wrong way, and the Cowgirl’s shot was placed perfectly in the bottom right corner of the Bears’ goal. 1-0 Oklahoma State in the 4th minute.
“We've got to quit conceding early goals like that,” said Baylor head coach Michelle Lenard, “but quick response, got right back on the scoreboard, and then after that didn't feel too overly worried … It shows great character of our team and perseverance to come back and score a goal pretty quickly afterwards. You can only do that so many times, so we've got to work through not giving up these early goals.”
The Bears showed their character by settling down and dominating possession to create good chances in response. Three minutes after the score, Hess hit the post from the edge of the Oklahoma State box. And three minutes later, a tackle on Jimison in the penalty area went to video review to determine if the tackle was clean or not. The review upheld the clean tackle call on the field, but Jimison would only need two more minutes to make her mark.
Senior winger Theresa McCullough did well to corral a long ball over the top on the right side before sliding a pass to the on-running Jimison near the penalty spot. Jimison’s first-time attempt was parried, but she got to the rebound first and poked it home, leveling the Bears and Pokes at 1-1 in the 11th minute.
The rest of the half saw Baylor hold the majority of possession, but both teams generated at least one more really good scoring opportunity. For the Cowgirls, it was a counterattack that ended with a quick cross flashing across the face of goal and barely being missed by the final attacker in the 38th minute.
For the Bears, it was another good shot by Hess from a central area, but her quality shot was met by a quality save in the bottom right corner of the Cowgirls' goal in the 42nd minute.
Sather, Jimison and Hess all threatened the Oklahoma State goal in the second half, but it was the Canadian who would find the winner for Baylor in the 56th minute. The Oklahoma State defense backed off of Sather when she had the ball about ten yards above the center circle, so the junior carried the ball forward, lined up her shot, and unleashed a laser low and across the face of goal to the bottom left corner. The placement was perfect, and the Cowgirls’ keeper either expected the shot to go wide or expected a deflection that never came. 2-1 Bears.
“Good timing,” said Coach Lenard of Sather’s return and score after the game. “Really glad she's back. What a great return for her, and a good time to score a goal for sure.”
The timing was extra impressive considering that Sather returned to Waco on Tuesday and trained with Baylor for the first time in a month on Wednesday.
“It was a long two days of travel, so yeah, it's been a bit hectic,” said Sather after the game. “But I think it was okay. I was grateful to get minutes. I was grateful to come on and help the team win.”
As for her goal, Sather likes her chances from range maybe as much as fellow goal-scorer Aryanna Jimison.
“I feel like I always kind of like to shoot from range. I scored a similar goal at the beginning of the season [vs. Arkansas]. I kind of had space, so I just wanted to try it.”
It was one heck of a try.
Oklahoma State pressed for an equalizer throughout the rest of the game, and the Bears were awarded three yellow cards for tackles or time wasting as they held strong.
In the end, the Cowgirls could only muster nine shots with five on goal compared to the Bears’ 19 with eight on goal, and Baylor saw out the final minutes without repeating the final seconds of the West Virginia draw.
The win moves Baylor into a four-way tie for third in the Big 12 with BYU, Texas Tech and Kansas all on four points. Colorado and Houston are the only teams off to 2-0-0 starts in the league.
“It's a fight to the end. It's war out there. It's super difficult. Every team is good,” said Coach Lenard. “So when we're at home, we need to get points at home, and we did that tonight. And we had to work for it. That's for sure. Maybe we could have given ourselves a little bit more of a breather. We had a couple of opportunities in the game, but a win is a win, and three points are important right now, so we'll take it and move on.”
Baylor continues Big 12 play on Sunday afternoon against the visiting Cincinnati Bearcats. That game is set to kick off at 1 p.m. on Sunday at Betty Lou Mayes Field.
“Cincinnati is another difficult team. They don't concede a lot of goals. They're physical. They're scrappy and hardworking … Our history with them is they've been really, really hard games for us. We haven't played them in a while either. I don't think we've played them in the last two years. So we're going to treat every game like it's the championship game, and we're going to prepare for it like that.”
