BYU women’s soccer is on a run for the ages.
The Cougars will play Kansas in Saturday’s Big 12 championship game, but their road to get there has been the stuff of legend.
Following a somewhat disappointing 4-5-2 record in league play to earn the No. 8 seed in the conference tournament, BYU knocked off top-seeded TCU — the No. 5-ranked team in the country — in penalty kicks on Monday in the tournament quarterfinals.
It was just the second Big 12 loss all season for the Horned Frogs, who couldn’t put away the Cougars despite outshooting them 23-9.
Ellie Walbruch scored two unassisted goals in regulation, adding another made shot in the penalty kick shootout along with Mackenzee Vance, Izzi Stratton and Lucy Kesler.
In her first start at BYU, goalkeeper Chelsea Peterson proved clutch with eight saves.
Wednesday against No. 5-seed Baylor, BYU went back to its giant-slaying ways, blowing out the No. 23 Bears 4-0 to clinch a spot in the conference title game.
Baylor, who had defeated the Cougars in Waco just a few weeks before, hadn’t allowed four goals all season before Wednesday.
Walbruch added two more goals — becoming the first player with consecutive braces in the Big 12 tournament since 1996 — with Mattyn Summers-Oviatt and Ella Labrum each scoring as well.
BYU now advances to the Big 12 title game for the first time since 2023 and becomes the first No. 8 tournament seed to do so since 2012.
The Cougars will face No. 7-seed Kansas in the championship match Saturday at 6 p.m. MST, where a win would give the program its 19th conference title.
The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.
