BYU women’s soccer set to travel to the Elite Eight at Stanford

2-seed BYU women’s soccer will travel to California this week to play 1-seed Stanford on The Farm on Friday.

BYU and Stanford led the nation in scoring in 2019, with Stanford averaging 4.33 goals per game and BYU following at 3.64 goals per game. Stanford and BYU were also 1-2 in assists per game, shots per game, total assists, total shots, and win percentage, with the final stat being the lone stat BYU is first in. Coming into the NCAA Tournament, BYU was the lone undefeated team in the country, while Stanford only had one loss. That one loss was to WCC’s Pepperdine, who BYU beat 5-1 in Provo in October.

Stanford boasts an attack that BYU hasn’t seen the likes of yet this year, with Cardinal Forward Catarina Macario leading the nation in scoring with 30 goals. Sophia Smith has the second most goals for Stanford with 14. BYU’s Elise Flake has 20 goals on the season, with Mikayla Colohan adding 16 more as the Cougars two leading scorers.

BYU hosted Stanford in 2018, a match which Stanford won by a score of 2-0.

The game will surely be a battle, with the midfield battle being the most intriguing. The Cougars will need to control the central third of the third, suffocating any Stanford release from the back. Stanford likewise will try to press the Cougars high on the field, and BYU will need a strong performance from their central midfield to slow the Cardinal attack and create opportunities for BYU on the other end.

The match will be Friday at 3 p.m. PST. Match will likely be televised on the Pac-12 Network, although the announcement has not been made at the published time of this article.