PROVO, Utah — BYU women’s soccer is making a habit of things rival Utah doesn’t want a habit made.
Mia Goettsche tallied a second-half brace as the 16th-ranked Cougars cruised to a fifth straight victory over their in-state rivals, 3-1 Friday night on a rain-soaked South Field.
The win extended BYU’s unbeaten streak against the Utes (4-9-5, 1-6-3 Big 12) to 12 straight with a 10-0-2 mark in the last 12 matches of the rivalry series.
“It’s a Utah game, it’s a big game,” said BYU coach Jennifer Rockwood, whose first career win at South Field came against Utah in her inaugural season in 1995. “I’ve said this before: It doesn’t matter how well anyone is doing in the season, it’s just always a tough game.
“The conditions were a bit unfortunate tonight and we grinded it out and got an early goal, saw some people get some good minutes. The second goal really made a big difference for us.”
The Cougars (11-3-3, 7-1-2 Big 12) took advantage of inclement weather — both teams had to play in it — and a friendly home environment — only one team earned that right — with an early goal from Mika Krommenhoek in a game where Utah out-shot the hosts 14-13 (but only put four of the Utes’ shots on target compared to six for BYU).
The junior midfielder scored the fastest goal of the season just 64 seconds into the match. After Presley Freeman found Afton Perry wide left of the penalty box, the sophomore’s cross found Krommenhoek for a one-touch finish that had BYU leading before several. of the 3,364 fans could open their umbrellas.
But that wasn’t the end of it.
Goettsche doubled the advantage in the 58th minute, when Avery Frischknecht redirected Sydney Snow’s corner kick right to the feet of Goettsche to poke behind Utah goalkeeper Anna Solomon to go up, 2-0.
Snow did it again 12 minutes later, looping a ball across the face of goal that freshman Kyleigh Hastings redirected back in front of Goettsche for the sophomore forward’s first brace of her collegiate career.
Kori Pickelle pulled one back in the 76th minute, scoring her first collegiate goal to prevent the shutout for the Utes.
“I’m gutted for our team not to get the result that I felt their performance deserved,” said Utah coach Hideki Nakada, whose team fell to 1-12 all-time against BYU. “But I’m incredibly proud of the effort, commitment, and fight they showed tonight. We’ll now look forward to celebrating our wonderful seniors next week, and we’ll do everything we can to put on a great performance and send them out in the right way.”
Utah returns home to close out the regular season next Thursday, Nov. 5 against Kansas State (7 p.m. MT, ESPN+), while BYU finishes up with Arizona State in Provo.
No. 25 Utah State bounces back with dominant Pac-12 road win
The Aggies bounced back from their first conference loss of the season by throttling Oregon State 5-0 in Corvallis, Oregon.
Kunie Hirai scored a brace for the Aggies (12-3-3, 5-1-1 Pac-12), who clinched a berth in the Pac-12 tournament hosted Sept. 11-14 at Chuck and Gloria Bell Field in Logan.
Mia Mullenmeister opened the scoring in the sixth minute, and Solena Sellers doubled the advantage in the 20th for Utah State.
Hirai gave the Aggies a 3-0 halftime lead with a goal on Samantha Sellers first of two assists on the evening.
The former Lone Peak standout found Hirai again in the 71st minute before Kei Yoneda polished off the scoring with her fourth goal of the season in the 76th minute.
Utah State returns home to host San Diego State in the regular-season finale Thursday, Nov. 5 at 7:30 p.m. MT.
Other results from around the Beehive State as the regular-season winds down include:
Utah Valley women’s soccer clinched at least a share of the Big West title Wednesday with a 2-0 win over Long Beach State in the regular-season home finale at UCCU Stadium. It’s the fifth-straight conference title for the Wolverines (12-4-3, 8-0-2 Big West).
Lily Blum and Simone Packer each scored a goal as Weber State rallied to stay atop the Big Sky with a 2-1 win over Northern Colorado on senior night Thursday.
Southern Utah and Utah Tech will wrap up the regular season next Thursday, Nov. 5 with a rivalry match at 1 p.m. MT in Cedar City. The Trailblazers (7-6-4, 3-2-3 Big Sky) are just 3 points behind Northern Arizona — which travels to Ogden to face Weber State on Sunday — for second place in the conference.
