By Ahfaaz Merchant | Sports Writer and DJ Ramirez | Sports Editor
Baylor soccer completed a 4-2 victory over West Virginia Thursday night at Betty Lou Mays Soccer Field.
Freshman forward Elizabeth Kooiman recorded a hat trick scoring her first three goals of the season. Senior forward Raegan Padgett also scored a goal in the 59th minute to take a 3-0 lead against the Mountaineers.
Kooiman is the first freshman to net a hat trick in the history of the program and her three goals marked the first hat trick nine years, with the last one coming off the boot of Lisa Sliwinski against Houston Baptist on Aug. 27, 2010.
The freshman said it felt good to finally get one past the post.
“It was pretty awesome, finally getting to put some chances away and just finishing the shots that I’ve been taking,” Kooiman said.
The match was tied 0-0 at the half with the Bears outshooting West Virginia 8-2. Baylor was in control of the ball as they outshot West Virginia 17-10 with 12 shots on goal.
Junior goal keeper Jennifer Wandt recorded four saves while Mountaineers goalkeeper Rylee Foster had eight saves as she took pressure from the Bears’ offense.
West Virginia’s first score of the night was an own goal by Baylor in the 56th minute but Kooiman and Padgett responded with back-to-back goals two minutes apart.
Padgett said it was great for the team to come together and complete the win.
“We have a new team and we’ve been having a little bit of a bumpy road. We’ve had great games but (haven’t gotten) the score that we want,” Padgett said. “It was really cool to see us come together and respond In such an awesome way, a huge way at home.”
It was the home victory for the Bears against West Virginia, which head coach Paul Jobson said he was very happy about, especially because the Mountaineers are a hard team to beat.
“They do not lose a lot of games. Go back and look. I don’t even know how many games they’ve lost in the Big 12. So, they don’t lose a lot,” Jobson said. “They’re a fantastic team, well coached and talented. But I think that our pressure was a lot tonight and I credit our girls for just being consistent.”
Baylor will travel to Fort Worth next week to take on TCU at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Garvey Rosenthal Stadium. The game will be available to watch on Fox Southwest.
