The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
BYU
Two Ortiz goals lead Soccer over BYU, 2-0, in NCAA first round
11.15.2007 | Soccer
COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- Freshman forward Alisha Ortiz scored two first-half goals to propel No. 6 Texas past No. 24 Brigham Young, 2-0, in the NCAA Women's Soccer Championship first round at the Aggie Soccer Stadium on Thursday, Nov. 15. The goals were Ortiz' second and third of her career.
In NCAA second round play on Saturday, Nov. 17, Texas (15-3-5) will face the winner of the Stephen F. Austin-Texas A&M match -- which is being contested Thursday night in College Station as the second game of the first-round doubleheader. That Saturday game is at 5:30 p.m. Central in College Station.
The Longhorns win 15 matches for the fourth time in program history, all under the watch of current head coach Chris Petrucelli. With the shutout, the Longhorns tie the school record of 10 blanks in a single season set during the 2006 campaign.
BYU (17-3-2) ends the season in the first round for the third consecutive year. The Cougars were held scoreless for the fifth time in 23 matches.
Ortiz (Highland Village, Texas) scored her first goal in the 10th minute of the game. The play started when junior defender Jill Gilbeau dribbled in front of the benches on the far side of the field. She passed to Niki Arlitt, who drew the goalkeeper out of the net. Arlitt slid and kicked the ball towards Ortiz, who dribbled around a BYU defender before shooting into the net. Cougars' goalkeeper Erika Woodbury had came out to defend Arlitt, leaving the nets open for Ortiz's score.
In the 18th minute, Ortiz netted her second goal off a deflected shot by senior forward Kelsey Carpenter. Carpenter fired one of her two shots of the game, but was blocked by a BYU defender. Ortiz collected the rebound and send a shot into the far corner of the net for the first multi-goal game of her career.
Ortiz made her first start since a 2-0 loss to No. 5 Texas A&M on Oct. 12, 2007, ironically in the same stadium as today's first round contest. Ortiz is the first Longhorn to score two goals in an NCAA match. She is the third UT player to score two goals in a game this year, as Arlitt and Carpenter each had two multi-goal performances during the regular season.
Junior goalkeeper Dianna Pfenninger (Sugar Land, Texas) won her 40th game, saving nine shots on goal and recording her seventh shutout of the year. She saved three crucial attempts in a two-minute span at the 83-minute mark as the BYU offense pressured the UT defense for a score.
Woodbury, who has only given up two goals once this year, allowed two scores and saved five shots on goal. The record-setting Cougar senior ends her final season with a 16-4-2 record.
STATS (UT-BYU): Shots 12-25, Corner Kicks 6-7, Fouls 6-13
POSTGAME QUOTES
HEAD COACH Chris Petrucelli
I thought our team showed a lot of character starting the game the way they started it. We always talk about starting the game well and certainly two goals put us in a good situation. Look, if we get one goal up, we are hard to beat because we are really solid in the back and we have a very talented goalkeeper. If we get two up, we know it makes it really difficult on the other team.
FORWARD Alisha Ortiz
It felt really good to come out and score two goals in our first NCAA game and contribute to the team.
DEFENDER Kasey Moore
We weren't expecting to come here and so we were a little shocked to come here. We talked about it as a team and realized this is the seed we were given. This is where we are going to go. There's nothing we can do to change it so we just put it behind us. We had BYU first and that was the first thought in our mind; we'll get through BYU first. They are a great team and they've put up a some good results and they had a great record.
GOALKEEPER Dianna Pfenninger
I felt a little bit of pressure, but our defense did well and Alisha did well coming out and scoring two in the first half so we just had a lot of confidence going in to the second half and just pulling out a big win for us.
