Skye Duncan | Lariat Photographer
By Jeffrey Swindoll
Sports Writer
Two weeks into Big 12 Conference play, Baylor soccer sits in a decent position with a 1-1-1 record, with the most recent game ended in a disappointing 1-1 tie with TCU on Friday.
Baylor fans packed the stands at Betty Lou Mays Field, urging their team to push for a goal in overtime against TCU, but the Bears were unsuccessful in claiming their second Big 12 win this season.
A tie is still a good result for the Bears, who are in the midst of a tight conference. No team looks out of the woods just yet and every game is crucial to the postseason picture.
“It’s a great conference. This is why it’s the Big 12,” Baylor co-head coach Marci Jobson said after the TCU game. “There are a lot of good teams and close games. That’s why we all count the points at the end very closely. We played well and are doing a lot of right things.”
Against TCU, junior midfielders Ashley York and Bri Campos were perhaps the most valuable to the team they’ve been all season. Campos tacked on another goal to her team-lead in goals this season. She made a run to the near-post and tucked her shot inside as she came tumbling down with a defender on her back in the 13th minute. Campos has six goals this season and 15 goals in her collegiate career, 10th all-time at Baylor.
On Friday, York sailed some fantastic balls into the box that just weren’t finished off by her teammates. Apart from those great passes, York nearly had the game winner against TCU.
With less than 2 minutes left in the match, Baylor earned a free kick about 25 to 30 yards out from the goal. Judging by the lackadaisical formation of the wall for the free kick, the Horned Frogs’ wall did not expect York to take the shot from that distance. York caught them off-guard, running straight at the ball, cracking her shot with the outside of her right foot. The ball knuckled on its way to TCU’s goalkeeper, who tipped the ball just over the crossbar.
“It’s pretty frustrating, but that’s soccer you know,” Campos said after the TCU game. “You get as many chances as you can and you put one away in one game and in the next game you can’t.”
Baylor has had an outstanding issue on set pieces this season. A set piece decided two games for Baylor this season. One was a loss to Notre Dame on a corner kick and the other was a free kick against TCU on Friday.
The TCU goal on Friday fell on the shoulders of Kloss. The rest of Baylor’s defense was in position, but were sitting ducks with Kloss out of the six-yard box.
“I have to claim that. That goal was my fault,” senior goalkeeper Michelle Kloss said. “I came out, misjudged it and it took a header off of one of our players and a TCU player finished it.”
Baylor will try to keep the upward momentum going this weekend when it goes on a road trip to Oklahoma to play the Sooners and Oklahoma State on Friday and Sunday respectively.
