PROVO — The BYU women's soccer team opened its 2007 season with a multi-goal offensive showing and a defensive shutout in the Cougars' 5-0 exhibition victory over Dixie State.
The final score wasn't the only lopsided ratio from Monday's late-night match at South Field. BYU outshot the Division II Rebels 23-1 and enjoyed a 10-0 margin in corner kicks.
Multi-point scorers for the Cougars were Carolyn Swenson, with a goal and two assists, and Katie Fellows, with a goal and an assist. Also adding goals were freshman Kassidy Christensen and veterans Katie Larkin and Whitney Fellows.
"We say, 'It doesn't matter who scores the goals — as long as we're scoring,' " said BYU coach Jennifer Rockwood.
Cougar keeper Erika Woodbury held Dixie scoreless in goal the first half, stopping the Rebels' sole shot, by forward Wendy Stratford. Substitutes Aleena Shelton and Simone Seymour shared second-half net duties for BYU and didn't face a shot in the final 45 minutes.
Swenson scored the only goal the Cougars would need, taking Fellows' tap and sending a left-footer past Dixie goalkeeper Suzanne Hunt and inside the opposite post for the 1-0 score in the 15th minute.
With less than three minutes before intermission, Christensen followed her ricocheted effort that glanced off Hunt's arms with a buried rebound shot for a 2-0 margin.
And less than two minutes into the second half, Fellows' goal on a Swenson assist upped the lead to 3-0.
Dixie's Robyn Wall fouled Larkin for the Rebels' first of two yellow cards, and Larkin promptly rammed home a right-side 25-yarder from Swenson's direct-kick assist in the 52nd minute.
Feller's long looper from 25 yards in front of the goal beyond Hunt's reach in the 70th minute concluded the scoring. The Cougars' Kristi Dow missed adding a couple of scores with two shots hammering off the crossbar.
Freshman forward Stacy Barthlomew, who starred at Orem's Timpanogos High, suffered a knee injury. Rockwood anticipates today's MRI to confirm a torn ACL, giving the Cougars two forwards — Alyssa Vander Veur is the other — out for '07 before the season officially starts.
BYU opens the regular season Friday night at Michigan State, followed by road matches the next week at Kansas and Colorado before returning home for the Cougars' Sept. 11 home opener against Long Beach State.
E-mail: taylor@desnews.com