The BYU Women's Soccer team went 2-0 against SEC teams this past weekend.
It is hard to believe that just two seasons ago the BYU Women's Soccer team had possibly their worst season ever. With so many seniors graduating that year it appeared that last year would be a rebuilding year and this season would perhaps be the year to start competing in the WCC again before being really good again next season.
They are ahead of schedule.
Last year, led completely by underclassman and one senior, the Cougars made the NCAA Tournament and won the WCC Title. This year, they appear to be going for even more.
The SEC is a Football/Baseball Conference, but they still get A TON of money in all of their programs. No matter what the sport is, the SEC is going to be a Top 3 conference. So when the Cougars travelled south to start off the season it was going to be a good indicator of where the BYU team is going to be in 2019. Let's just say it is probably going to be pretty good.
In the first game, the Cougars played Alabama, a team that finished 8-8-3 last season but returned a lot of talent. Mikayla Colohan found the back of the net in the eighth minute of the game that ended up being the game winner. The Cougars won 1-0 shutting out the home team for only the second time in their last eight games.
Two days later, the Cougars traveled to Starkville to play Mississippi State. The Bulldogs were an NCAA Tournament team last season and proved to be tougher than Alabama. The game was a back and forth defensive battle as the Cougars got off more than 20 shots. With the game tied at one with only five minutes to go, Colohan found the back of the net again off a penalty kick to give the Cougars their second win of the season.
While we don't know how those teams will end up fairing the rest of the season, it is very promising that the Cougars went to SEC country and played two games in three days and only allowed one goal, which came off of a penalty. While the offense needs to do a bit better (2 goals on more than 20 shots is not efficient), the team is showing that they can travel anywhere and still be a sound team.
The Cougars will return home for the next three games but will have no break as they face SUU, Utah and Texas A&M. If the Cougars are able to start off 5-0, which they are showing promise of doing, watch out for a really special season.