Jimison Brace Leads No. 9 Baylor Soccer Past Kansas 3-1 and into Tie for First in Big 12

WACO, Texas — No. 9 Baylor Soccer (10-1-1, 3-0-1) used two outstanding goals from senior midfielder Aryanna Jimison on either side of halftime to power past the visiting Kansas Jayhawks (8-3-1, 2-1-1) by a score of 3-1.

The new leading scorer for the Bears, Jimison, netted her fifth and sixth goals of the campaign in the 45th and 47th minutes, respectively. 

Freshman midfielder Brynnelee Bohannon scored her second goal of the season to put the Bears up 3-0 in the 68th minute before the Jayhawks scored in the last minute of the game to avoid the shutout.

With the win, the Bears swept their three-game home stand and moved into a tie for first place in the Big 12 thanks to Houston’s 2-0 loss to No. 18 West Virginia. The other teams tied with the Bears on 10 points are Texas Tech and BYU. 

“Great result. Really happy with three points for conference. But I just thought the team played well from start to finish; they executed the game plan really well,” said Baylor head coach Michelle Lenard after the game. “We didn't create nearly as many opportunities in the first half as we would have wanted, but we definitely muted their attack and the type of threats that we knew that they would come into this game with. We made some halftime adjustments, and then you saw a much more potent attack from us in the second half. So, really proud of the team.”

The Bears did well not to concede in the first half, with the Jayhawks in more control of the game through the first 45 minutes. 

Kansas outshot the Bears 7-5 in half one, including the two best scoring chances of the half. The first came in the 20th minute when a Kansas corner found its way to Jillian Gregorski, whose toe-poked effort was saved by Baylor defender Sydney Miller. 

Then in the 33rd minute, Jordan Rowan for the Jayhawks took advantage of a misplayed clearance by the Bears and had a one-on-one opportunity against Baylor keeper Azul Alvarez. As quickly as the chance materialized, it vanished with a slip from Rowan on her lunging effort mere feet in front of Alvarez. The Bears’ keeper made the save and kept things tied at 0-0. 

In the end, Jimison was the only player to make a shot count on the scoreboard in the first frame.

After having an attempted pass to Omholt was cut out, the ball bounced straight back to Jimison, who opted to shoot from about 30 yards out. Her knuckleball shot sliced from left to right, out of reach of the keeper but not off of the frame of goal. The net rippled, and the Bears took a 1-0 lead with 46 seconds left in the half. 

“Definitely great to get the first goal, just for the team, because we were able to take a deep breath and then reevaluate going into the second half,” said Jimison after the game. “So getting the first goal and then being able to go into the half up a goal allowed us to just be like, ‘Okay, we got this’.”

Just 123 seconds of game time later — though halftime made the gap much longer — Jimison doubled the Bears' lead. This time, it was a low driven shot, skimming across the playing surface from the right end of the penalty arc to the bottom left corner of the Kansas goal. 2-0 Baylor with the assist from Theresa McCullough. 

“We didn't create a whole lot in the first half. I think getting into the second half with the lead was a big deal,” said Coach Lenard. “But that's what you know Ary can do, and she's got the freedom to take those types of shots, especially in a game like this. And she knows when to take them and to give us a little bit of breathing room going into the second half. And then I was really happy with the adjustments that the team made going into the second half, and we looked way more dangerous. And so you knew those second and third goals were likely coming.”

Kansas would test Alvarez in the 55th minute, but the Bears keeper was up to the task. 

Freshman midfielder Brynnlee Bohannon, who has seen slightly fewer minutes per game since the start of Big 12 play and the return of Noelle Sather, made the most of her 22 minutes against the Jayhawks by giving the Bears the insurance goal they have been lacking lately. In almost the same spot as Jimison’s second goal, and again off of a feed from McCullough, Bohannon sent a dipping effort into the bottom left of the Jayhawks’ goal. 3-0 Baylor. 

It looked as if the Bears would see things out and earn their third clean sheet of the season and first in Big 12 play, but the visitors did not give up, scoring off of a minor deflection in the final minute of the game. 

“We played really well for the entire game and put ourselves in a position where one mistake didn't cost us a game, and that's what we want to be able to do,” said Coach Lenard. “It just is what it is. They're throwing tons of numbers forward and trying to create something out of nothing, and it just took a bad bounce. It's wet. It slipped. It just took a deflection off of us, which was really unfortunate. I thought our backline played excellent the entire game. Azul played great. It was really unfortunate to give up a goal like that.”

The disappointment in not keeping a clean sheet, which was apparent, did not severely dampen the mood, though. The Bears earned a very good conference win on a rainy night in Waco and kept themselves in the thick of the hunt for a Big 12 title. A third of league play is now finished, and the Bears are tied for first. It does not get any easier with a trip to No. 17 Colorado next Thursday. The Buffs lost 2-0 at UCF on Friday, moving them to 2-2-0 in Big 12 play and four points back of the Bears. Baylor at Colorado kicks off at 8 p.m. on October 8th and will be available to stream on ESPN+.