By Ahfaaz Merchant | Sports Writer
Baylor soccer took a 1-0 loss against the No. 15 Red Raiders in the Big 12 Championship Tournament quarterfinals Sunday at the Swope Soccer Village in Kansas City, Mo.
The match was mostly a defensive contest with the Bears holding Texas Tech to only four shots on the night. Both teams tallied a total of 12 shots with Baylor attempting seven of its eight in the first half. The Bears came up short even though three of the attempts were on goal.
Head coach Paul Jobson said he was pleased with the team’s response in the second half of the match.
“I thought we responded well in the second half after being down 1-0 in the first,” said Jobson. We just couldn’t find the back of the net tonight. Congrats to Tech on advancing.”
Senior forward Camryn Wendlandt tried heading the ball into box on a corner kick by redshirt freshman midfielder Maddie Algya but the shot was a tad bit too high off the crossbar.
Baylor got another attempt at the goal in the 29th minute on a shot by sophomore forward Taylor Moon who made some moves to get past her defender and sent the ball to senior forward Raegan Padgett for a goal. Padgett’s attempt went straight into the hands of Texas Tech’s goalkeeper Madison White.
Although the team took a loss, Padgett came one game closer to most games played as a Bear as she played in her 88th career game. This now moves her to tie at second place in the record books alongside Julie James, a Baylor alumnus from 2015-2018.
The Bears had another chance to get on the board in the 32nd minute when midfielder Eva Mitchell grabbed the ball off a free kick from junior goalkeeper Jennifer Wandt. Mitchell blasted a shot towards the bottom right of the net but White once again made a diving save to hold Baylor scoreless.
With the loss, the Bears were eliminated from the tournament and will have to wait to find out if they will receive an invitation to the NCAA Tournament.
