The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
BYU
No. 22 Soccer edged 1-0 by BYU
09.12.2005 | Soccer
PROVO, Utah -- Although outshooting the opposition by a 5-3 margin in the second half and having some late opportunities, No. 22 Texas (2-2-1) could not overcome a first-half Cougars' goal and lost a hard-fought 1-0 decision to BYU (6-0-0) in front of a school-record crowd of 3,322 at South Stadium on Monday, Sept. 12.
With the loss, the Longhorns drop to 2-2-1 overall, while the Cougars improve their record to 6-0-0 on the season.
UT had the first scoring chance of the match in the 15th minute of action as Amy Burlingham (Costa Mesa, Calif.) slipped behind the BYU defense and moved in on a breakaway. While Burlingham fired a quality shot, Cougars goalkeeper Ashley Smith managed to chest down the opportunity to mark the first of her four saves on the night. A little over 10 minutes later, BYU's Bobbi Tillotson used one of the Cougars seven corner kicks during the match to loft a service into the box that Jaime Beck was able to get a head on from six yards out and direct it inside the far post for a 1-0 lead. Although BYU would manage to outshoot the Horns 8-3 in the opening period, UT's defense, along with goalkeeper Dana Hall (Kingwood, Texas), held strong and kept it a one-goal game at halftime.
In the second half, Texas pressed its attack looking for the equalizer, but wasn't able to find the back of the net early against BYU. Then, with six minutes remaining in the match, Burlingham slotted a pass inside the box that Priscilla Fite (Irving, Texas) ran on to and blasted a shot off the post. While the rebound came out to the foot of Caitlin Kennedy (Euless, Texas), the sophomore midfielder's shot sailed over the crossbar to keep the Cougars in front. From there, Smith and BYU's defensive unit held off the Longhorns' attack over the waning minutes to preserve the one-goal victory. While Smith picked up the win, Hall incurred the loss despite making three saves over 45 minutes of action.
"I was very impressed with BYU," UT head coach Chris Petrucelli said. "They played extremely well tonight. It was also a great environment to play in. In terms of our team's performance, we just didn't produce enough goal-scoring opportunities. We were more than solid defensively, but we didn't create enough attack in order to give ourselves a chance to win."
The respective offenses on the night were led by the tandem of Kelsey Carpenter (Allen, Texas) and Carrie Schmit (La Mesa, Calif.) for Texas, who combined to account for four of the Horns' eight shots, and Stephanie Staples for BYU, who fired a match-best three shots on the evening.
Up next, the Longhorns return to Myers Stadium for a 7:30 p.m. Central match against No. 5 Portland on Friday, Sept. 16.
