By Francesca Maietta | Reporter
Baylor soccer preps for a weekend road trip after rounding up two wins this past weekend against TCU and Texas Tech.
With 14 games down, the Bears are now 9-4-1 on the season and are looking to continue the energy from last weekend’s victories into the games this weekend. Head coach Paul Jobson said he was proud of the girls and their performance last weekend after back-to-back wins.
“We probably weren’t at our best that day, but we found a way to win,” Jobson said. “Great teams find a way to win, no matter what the circumstances are and I’m proud of them for that.”
Senior forward/midfielder Kennedy Brown said there are some benefits to playing a tough schedule.
“What’s good about our previous games is that we get to figure out who we are a little bit earlier,” Brown said. “Which is nice because we’re coming close to midseason of Big 12 play and we know who we are and our purpose.”
Junior forward Raegan Padgett also sees the upside to their challenging schedule.
“I think last season ended up being an amazing season and one of our bests,” Padgett said. “But it took a while to find out what kind of team we were going to be because I think our pre-season schedule wasn’t as challenging, so I feel like we’ve already really figured our what team we’re going to be and the different pieces that people bring on to the field.”
Last weekend, the Bears beat TCU 1-0 at home and then headed straight for Lubbock where they won their second game against Texas Tech 2-0. Jobson said the non-conference schedule is paying off right now and that the team’s mindset is in the right place.
“It [the non-conference schedule] doesn’t determine what our results will be,” Jobson said. “But it sure is helping us be prepared for them. The mindset in the locker room is just ‘next one up,’ really. It’s been pretty consistent through the season with who’s the best team and what we need to do to prepare ourselves.”
This weekend, the Bears are taking on another back-to-back game schedule on the road. Brown is confident the team is ready to put up a fight.
“We’re just trying to stay focused on the next game and kind of preparing for whatever’s to come,” Brown said. “West Virginia — they’re a big opponent. We’re excited as a team; we’re all together in unity and we’re ready for what’s next. What’s kind of fun is to go up against teams like that because we get pumped. We always know they’re going to be a good team no matter who they played, lost to or tied to.”
Jobson said the Sunday games are always the hardest.
“These Sunday matches really are dogfights, “ Jobson said. “It really comes down to your will over your way, so we have to be prepared for that, but we have to focus on West Virginia first and then recover and try to be ready to compete again on Sunday.”
The Bears will be taking on the West Virginia Mountaineers at 7 p.m. Friday in Morgantown, W.Va. and the Iowa State Cyclones at 1 p.m. Sunday in Ames, Iowa.
