NCAA women's soccer: BYU eliminated by No. 11 Santa Clara's 2nd-half stunner

PROVO — BYU women's soccer had 15 opportunities to score in Friday night's opening match of the NCAA Tournament, or at least four times the Cougars put a shot on target.

Santa Clara only needed one.

Tori Powell scored the lone goal of the match with 20 minutes to play to lift the 11th-ranked Broncos to a 1-0 win over eighth-seeded BYU at South Field.

Marlee Nicolos made four saves to earn the shutout for Santa Clara (13-3-4), which won its 14th West Coast Conference title in program history with a 6-1-3 record.

"We did not want to see BYU when the selection show came out, at all," said Santa Clara coach Jerry Smith, whose team improved 5-0-1 in the NCAA Tournament all-time against the Cougars and 3-2-3 in Provo. "Playing here at South Field is so hard, and that's a real credit to BYU, to Jen, her staff and her team.

"It's not easy to shut out BYU," he added. "Marlee played a big part of that; she made a lot of big saves for us today."

Through Smith's 38 years as a collegiate head coach and BYU counterpart Jennifer Rockwood's 30, the duo have formed a close kinship — and one that grew even closer during the decade they spent leading rival sides in the WCC.

So when Rockwood saw the Broncos, who were ranked No. 11 in the most recent United Soccer Coaches' poll, in their tournament opener, she was both surprised and excited.

"It wasn't our best overall performance, but I felt like we did enough to put at least one in the back of the net," said Rockwood, whose team advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the seventh consecutive season and 25th time in 30 years before finishing 9-7-5 overall. "Particularly, we had some really good opportunities, only gave up one shot in the second half, and unfortunately that was the one that got us.

"I'm really proud of this team, and how far they've come this season," she added. "We've had to play through a lot of injuries, but it's forced us to move a lot of players around on the youngest BYU team that we've ever had."

Allie Fryer nearly netted in the 13th minute, but her quick counter was punched out by Nicolos — twice, once off the shot and another the rebound off the goal line — to keep the match level early.

But Santa Clara nearly bagged at least one in the final minutes of the half, when Kennedy Schoennauer's shot was blocked and Mana Hayashi sent one off the crossbar in the 43rd minute.

The 11th-ranked Broncos outshot BYU 11-7 in the first half, but matched the Cougars with two shots on target through 45 minutes.

Nicolos stopped another one from Allie Fryer in the 63rd minute, moments after Erin Bailey had a shot blocked.

Instead, the Broncos struck first against the run of play when Powell lofted a ball from the edge of the 18 that cleared an outstretched Lynette Hernaez in the 70th minute before dipping just under the crossbar for her fourth goal of the year.

"Goals tend to come when you're in the moment, just playing and not always focused by all the tactical stuff going on," Powell said. "In that moment, I just played the game for what it was in front of me, and I think that's what our whole team did: Played in the moment, stayed in the moment, and finished it out."

"I looked where the goalkeeper was, decided to hit it high, and was happy it went in," she added.

Goals tend to come when you're in the moment instead of overthinking and figuring the tactical stuff.

It was Santa Clara's only shot on goal after halftime.

"It definitely felt like it came out of nowhere," said BYU midfielder Mika Krommenhoek, who earned All-Big 12 second-team and freshman team honors. "It hurt a little bit. It really felt like we had one coming. We had attack after attack.

"But one thing about this team is even after we went down, we were able to keep the attack going. That's something that will be huge for us in the future."

Lucy Kesler stood over a free kick in the 80th minute to equalize, but Nicolos swallowed the freshman's direct shot on target to keep the clean sheet.

Avery Frischknecht appeared to equalize in the final minutes. But her goal was called back for an offside infraction, and Santa Clara ran out the rest of the clock.

Santa Clara advanced to face second-seeded North Carolina in the Chapel Hill regional next week.

"We had a great run this year, a tremendous fan base, unbelievable support for our program," Rockwood said. "It's the best place in the nation to play, by far; there isn't another place like it."

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