By Greg DeVries
The No. 15 Baylor women’s soccer team won their final regular season game over TCU by a score of 2-0. The team finished their season 14-1-4 overall and 5-0-3 in conference play.
“I thought we played pretty well all night,” head coach Marci Jobson said. “We came out, I thought, very prepared, very ready and slowly chipped away through the game.”
Baylor started its final game of the season with a lot of pressure on the ball. This created a lot of turnovers and offensive opportunities for the Bears.
Just five minutes into the game, freshman forward Bri Campos found the back of the net to give Baylor the 1-0 lead.
“It was a bad clear. I knew I could get a good touch off of it and a good strike,” Bri Campos said. “The goalie got a good angle on me, but I got it right in the corner.”
With about 15 minutes left in the half, Baylor played the ball over the top of the defense and senior forward Lisa Sliwinski attemped to cross the ball in front of the goal.
A TCU defender inadvertently hit the ball with her arm and prevented the ball from sailing across the middle, so the referee blew the whistle and pointed at the ground inside the 18-yard box to award the Bears with a penalty kick.
Bri Campos’ older sister Larissa lined up to take the penalty kick. The home crowd fell silent, and junior midfielder Larissa Campos’ steps could be heard as she approached the ball. She beat the goalie to the right side and extended Baylor’s lead to 2-0.
“We’ve been practicing [penalty kicks] all week, and I felt pretty confident going up there,” Larissa Campos said. “That’s a pure muscle effort and muscle effort by Lisa Sliwinski, so I have to give her credit on that one. I just finished the goal.
The Bears remained aggressive and kept the shots coming. At the end of the half, Baylor had recorded 14 shots to TCU’s two.
Baylor did more of the same in the second half. The Bears put multiple shots on frame, but TCU sophomore goalkeeper Vittoria Arnold repeatedly made spectacular saves.
Junior defender Kat Ludlow collided with junior midfielder Karlee Summey. The referee stopped the clock and the staff examined both players.
Summey shook off the pain pretty quickly. She runs into players every game, but Ludlow was taken to the bench. She later returned to the game and appeared to be okay, but did not participate in postgame stretches.
By the end of the game, the Bears had expanded their shot advantage to 24 to three, though the score remained 2-0.
With the win, the Bears finished second in the Big 12 behind West Virginia, and they will be the No. 2 seed in the Big 12 tournament that starts on Oct. 31. Baylor finished unbeaten in Big 12 play for the first time since 1998 when it was the No. 1 overall seed in the Big 12 tournament.
Baylor will next take on the No. 7 seed Oklahoma State in the first round of the Big 12 tournament. The Bears have not lost in their last fifteen games, which is a program record.
