PROVO — BYU women’s soccer achieved a significant milestone back in 2012 and, armed with several significant components, are on the cusp of arriving at new heights for the 2019 season.
For just the second time in program’s history, the Cougars will take the field as one of the final eight teams standing when taking on No. 1 Stanford. They’ll go into Friday’s match confident and validated, having swept through the first three rounds by a combined score of 12-1 and a gleaming 21-0-1 record on the year.
BYU coach Jennifer Rockwood remembers well the last and only prior time her team was at this stage. As mentioned, it was in 2012, when the Cougars squared off against legendary North Carolina, the same team that moved on to win the championship that season.
For Rockwood, it was all a bit surreal at the time considering where the lagging program was at when she took over in 1995.
“I told the girls prior to the tournament how amazing it would be to host North Carolina,” Rockwood said, mentioning it’s not an approach she normally takes at the outset of tournament play. “When it happened, it was truly special. Everybody knows North Carolina soccer. They’ve been the most dominant team in college in any sport.”
What observers came to know better following the match was the potential of BYU soccer.
Indeed, Rockwood’s team matched the Tar Heels blow-for-blow before narrowly losing a 2-1 game in double overtime and again made a run in 2016 before losing a tough 1-0 game to South Carolina in the round of 16.
This year’s team holds similarities to both the 2012 and 2016 teams, according to Rockwood, with several key elements that could vault the Cougars to new heights.
“Those two teams were special, but this team is also a very special team that’s come together,” Rockwood said earlier in the year. “We feel this team can attack effectively like the 2016, but we can also defend, which was the strength of the 2012 team. We like what’s come together.”
Little things yield big results
BYU senior goalie Sabrina Davis makes it a priority to have the team’s freshmen over once a week to have dinner with her and her husband. Her reason for doing as much is relatively simple; Murph told her to.
“Murph” refers to former Cougar midfielder Michele Murphy Vasconcelos, who was a senior in 2016 when Davis entered the program. Coming to a BYU team full of players from the state of Utah, Davis had a bigger social curve to overcome, arriving at Provo from Littleton, Colorado, although Vasconcelos eased the transition.
“She took me under her wing,” Davis said. “It was difficult being away from home and not having any family here, because all my family lives in Colorado, so you’re lost and in this new place, but this awesome senior comes and takes me under her wing. ... She made me promise me when I was a senior that I’d take care of the freshmen, so here I am.”
Davis doesn’t exactly present the most imposing figure at goalie, standing in at just 5-foot-5, although her play has proven big throughout her BYU career along with her social strides made away from the field.
“Soccer isn’t going to last forever, but the relationships you build is what’s going to last,” Davis said. “This is the closest I’ve been with everyone on my team.”
Even at 5-5, Davis isn’t the shortest member of BYU’s team. That designation would belong to fellow senior Lizzy Braby, a 5-2 midfielder who has also proven big for the Cougars on the field, playing an essential role in both catalyzing scoring opportunities and preventing the same from the opposition.
Like Davis, Braby raves about how close this year’s team has become, expressing a truly unique dynamic that has aided the Cougars’ success.
“It’s all about chemistry and there’s real love for one another on this team,” Braby said. “We really do hang out all the time away from the field, and it’s not forced or weird. It’s just what we do and it’s natural. I’ve been on some special teams that are close, but nothing like I’ve experienced this year, and you can see that with how we play.”
Headliner talent
Of course superior social dynamics can only get a team so far. That aspect has to be implemented with superior talent, and fortunately for BYU, it has gobs of talent at every position group.
On the backend, it’s a stifling defense led by Davis and top defenders Alyssa Jefferson, Rachel Bingham Lyman, Josie Guinn and Danika Serassio, among others. The midfield includes top play from Braby, Jamie Shepherd and West Coast Conference player of the year Mikayla Colohan, who has provided 16 goals on the year.
“Mikayla is amazing,” Braby said. “She’s so fun to play with and I feel we’ve built a lot of chemistry, but that’s what it’s been like for everyone. It’s why we’ve become the team we have.”
Braby arrived at BYU with former club soccer teammate Elise Flake and the subsequent built-in chemistry established through that club experience. That chemistry has only been enhanced since, with Flake rising to establish herself as the team’s leading goal-scorer, having tallied 20 on the year.
“I feel we play really well together,” Flake, who offers up quotes in the same concise and direct manner she mounts her attacks on goal. “We know what each other’s strengths are, so we play really well off each other.”
Flake has also thrived due to chemistry established with fellow forwards like Cameron Tucker, who has notched 12 goals this season.
“She’s worked so hard and she’s deserving of all her recognition,” Rockwood said of her leading goal-scorer. “She’s real explosive and a great finisher and there’s not many people who can slow her down.
“We’ve approached every match the same, so why change it now? Every match, we’ve gone in with the thought that if we focus on what we do and give it all we have that we’ll get results. Stanford is obviously a great team, but we know that we’re also a great team.” — BYU senior Lizzy Braby
The approach remains the same
The inclination when taking on a team like Stanford would be to lend a lot of focus on the Pac-12 champion’s 21-1 record and 93 goals scored on the year. How to defend and attack a team so formidable would be the focus of some observers, although according to Rockwood and her players, the focus in the week leading up to Friday’s match will be internal.
“We’ve approached every match the same, so why change it now?” Braby asked. “Every match, we’ve gone in with the thought that if we focus on what we do and give it all we have that we’ll get results. Stanford is obviously a great team, but we know that we’re also a great team.”
Of course BYU won’t be entering the match blind, having done plenty of prep work on how to best counter all the challenges the Cardinals present.
“They have phenomenal players — the best of the best, for sure,” Rockwood said. “They have a great coaching staff who has been there for a long time and has gotten incredible results.”
In short, Stanford presents a team very similar to the North Carolina team BYU faced back in 2012, with Rockwood hopeful to flip the result this time around in order to reach the unexplored heights she believes her team is capable of.
“Yeah, Stanford is kind of that team now,” Rockwood said. “... So now we’re just trying to move on and do something that no team has ever done at BYU. That’s what this team set out to do at the start of the season.”
Cougars on the air
BYU (21-0-1, 8-0-1 WCC)
vs. Stanford (21-1-0, 11-0-0 Pac-12)
Friday, Nov. 29, at 3 p.m. PST, at Cagan Stadium
Online: Stanford live stream
Radio: BYU Sports Network, BYU Cougars App and 107.9 FM