By Foster Nicholas | Sports Writer
Baylor soccer fell short of a victory by a matter of centimeters against Cincinnati, as the Senior Night contest ended in a draw, 2-2, on Thursday at Betty Lou Mays Field.
“I felt like we did not deserve to tie that game. [I] felt like we deserved to win,” head coach Michelle Lenard said. “Feel really disappointed for the girls because, yeah, I’d like us to defend better in those situations, but I don’t think we had to give the opponent a free chance.”
With one minute remaining, the Bears found service right in front of the net, the ball hovering over the goal line. The score knotted at two goals apiece, freshman forward Skylar Zinnecker leaped in the air and sent a header past the Bearcat goalie for appeared to be a goal. Unfortunately for the home team, a defender stood pat with both feet in the goal and kicked the ball out of the net and back into the field of play. No whistles blew and play went on as the difference between what looked to be a strike and the final line before pay dirt blurred into a 2-2 final.
“It’s obviously frustrating when you’re, like I said, you’re knocking on the door the entire time, you’re almost there every single time,” senior midfielder Ashley Merrill said. “It’s frustrating because you want to win so bad and obviously it just didn’t happen. It was just frustrating over and over when we’re right there, and it’s just taken away. But we also didn’t finish a lot of other opportunities we had that were easier.”
Baylor (8-5-3, 3-3-2 Big 12) and Cincinnati (3-6-6, 2-2-4 Big 12) went head to head for the first time in program history. The visitors struck first in the 13th minute.
In the final minute of the opening half, the Bears found the equalizer. Zinnecker dished a pass into the 18-yard box for Merrill, who sent the ball off her left boot and into the bottom right corner of the net. After extending her team lead in goals (9), Merrill turned her head, flexed her muscles and was swarmed by teammates, sending the green and gold into the half knotted up at 1-1.
“I think we were knocking on the door the whole time,” Merrill said. “The last 20 minutes, [we] knew it was coming. I think we needed it to switch the momentum in our favor. I think it did. It shifted the momentum to us rather than them.”
The match stayed close to start the second half, as each respective attack was unable to convert opportunities in the final third. However, in the 69th minute, the Bears finally broke the tie. On the night she was being honored as a leader and senior on Baylor’s roster, graduate student forward Jenna Patterson served an assist to freshman midfielder Callie Conrad. Conrad took the pass, dribbled inside the 18-yard box, ditched a defender, and sprinkled the ball past the Bearcat defense and into the back of the net.
Cincinnati enabled a strong counterattack opportunity in the 85th minute as graduate student goalkeeper Makinzie Short dove for a save and took the shot off her chin. The Bearcats were right there for the rebound and with Short out of the play, the visitors tapped in the equalizer, tying it up 2-2 with only a few minutes left to play.
Despite Zinnecker’s header attempt with under a minute to play, the game ended in the 2-2 tie.
“There are no easy games,” Lenard said. “None. It doesn’t matter the position of the team in the conference, whether they’re in last or whatever, they’re not an easy matchup for anybody. Even teams at the top of the conference. You have to execute your strategy well. We should have won this game if we had done that, and we didn’t. We lacked some discipline in key moments and that led to a late goal.”
The Bears will finish up the regular season on the road and will take the pitch once more on against No. 21 TCU. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Sunday at Garvey-Rosenthal Soccer Stadium in Fort Worth.
Lenard said nothing changes in terms of the mentality or approach as Baylor prepares for the Horned Frogs (9-4-3, 5-1-2 Big 12).
We’re frustrated, but we’re going to have to get over it tonight and move on to the next day,” Lenard said. “We feel like we can go in there and challenge for an outcome or at least for a point. So, that’s going to be a big moment for us.”
