Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
PROVO — Seventeen times before Thursday night, the third-ranked BYU women’s soccer team met a West Coast Conference opponent at South Field, and in all 17, the Cougars came out with a win.
Not Thursday night, but not for lack of trying.
BYU lofted 16 shots, but Santa Clara goalkeeper Melissa Lowder made nine saves to lead both teams to a 0-0 draw at South Field in the WCC opener in front of 2,871 fans.
BYU outshot the Broncos (3-4-4, 0-0-1 WCC) 16-3, but only put six of their shots on frame.
“I thought we played an outstanding game. I was so impressed with the way we played,” BYU coach Jennifer Rockwood said. “Those first 45 minutes were the best 45 minutes we’ve played all year. Obviously we wanted three points and got one, so it’s not what we aimed to do. But as far as our goal of getting better with each game, I thought we did really well tonight.” The Cougars (9-1-1, 0-0-1 WCC) have not conceded a goal since a 3-1 win Sept. 17 at Utah State, and have only given up one goal in their past six matches dating back to a 2-0 win at rival Utah on Sept. 5.
“I think we all just have really good chemistry,” BYU defender Danika Bowman said. “Our forwards are playing well, too, providing the first pressure and defending in our midfield. We’re defending as a team, and that makes it pretty easy for the back line.”
BYU outshot the Broncos 7-1 in the first half. But Lowder saved the only attempt on frame she faced in the half, and played even more balls at her feet as she drifted as far as 30 feet away from her own 6-yard box in the opening stanza.
Lizzy Braby nearly finished off Madie Siddoway’s cross with four minutes remaining in the half. But Braby’s header looped inches over the crossbar to preserve the first-half scoreless drought.
Bizzy Phillips Bowen stood over a free kick just over a half hour into the match, but deferred to Michele Vasconcelos for a shot that sailed just wide of the goal mouth for one of six first-half shots off target.
“Our communication was really on point,” Bowman said. “They had some weird forward play, dropping really low and exchanging a lot, so we had to communicate them switching a lot. But we were all on the same page the whole time, and our outside backs did a great job.
“We were just unlucky when it came to finishing.”
Nadia Gomes smacked a shot on frame off Hatch’s pass inside the 6 in the 68th minute, but a backtracking defender blocked the ball out of bounds for a throw-in.
Jocelyn Loomis’ counter-attacking header nearly found the back of the net in the 74th minute, but Lowder made a reflex save to keep the clean sheet.
Loomis crossed a counter attack into the center of the box five minutes later, and Vasconcelos teed up a ball that Lowder dived to her left to save to keep the shutout through 90 minutes of regulation.
“She did a great job,” Rockwood said of Lowder. “We had some great looks, and we’ve got to finish. I think the way we started in the first 15-20 minutes was so good, and if we could’ve put one in, it would’ve been a bit different.
“But I’m really pleased with the way we played. That’s the most important thing.”
Lowder made a goal-line save on a corner kick in the seventh minute of extra time, and the Broncos held BYU without a shot on target the rest of the way to earn the valuable road point in WCC play.
“Santa Clara is a very good team,” Rockwood said. “It’s tough to be too disappointed when we played as well as we did.”
Bowman agreed with her coach — there’s no reason to be disappointed with Thursday’s draw.
“They played a great game holding us to zero,” she said. “It’s probably one of the best games we played. We can build off that. We were just unlucky when it came to finishing.”
