By Marissa Essenburg | Sports Writer
Baylor soccer opened its home slate Thursday with a victory over No. 17 Mississippi State, 2-0, just days after the Bulldogs upset No. 10 Wake Forest.
The Bears (2-0-2) came out on the front foot, pinning Mississippi State’s back line under pressure from the opening whistle. The match sparked to life in the first minute, when junior forward Callie Conrad stepped up for a penalty kick after an early foul in the box and fired the opening shot.
Despite coming up empty on the penalty kick, freshman midfielder Olivia Hess wasted no time putting Baylor ahead. Just three minutes into the match, she buried a left-footed strike off a pass from junior midfielder Theresa McCullough, slotting it into the right corner of the net to give the Bears a 1–0 lead and their first home goal of the season.
“We’ve worked so hard for this from the spring to our preseason games, and this win shows that our work really paid off,” Hess said. “It was a team effort, and it was super exciting, especially for me, with the team starting off strong against a ranked opponent. It was awesome.”
With the teams’ all-time series tied 1–1, the Bears came out hot and hungry, eager for payback after last year’s loss in Starkville. That energy carried them through the first half, where Baylor dominated the stat sheet with five shots on goal to Mississippi State’s one and an 8–3 advantage in corner kicks.
“It’s an attacking mentality,” head coach Michelle Lenard said. “We don’t want to get scored on, but we want to score goals. That’s what soccer is about — that’s what makes it beautiful and fun. We’ve been pushing that all preseason: attack, get in the box, take chances — and we did a good job of that tonight.”
Despite Baylor’s strong start, the opening half wasn’t without setbacks. Senior Baylor midfielder Hannah Augustyn went down in the box after a knock to the head with 14 minutes left in the half.
After the break, Mississippi State pushed numbers forward in search of the equalizer, but Baylor’s steady tempo and organized defense kept control of the match.
“At halftime, I said we’ve got to dial up the physicality, we’ve got to win more loose balls, and they did that,” Lenard said.
That persistence eventually paid off in the 82nd minute, when junior midfielder Aryanna Jimison broke through the defense for the Bears’ second goal.
“I told the team we won the game in the first five minutes,” Lenard said. We set the tempo, we did exactly what we planned to do, and we got a great result because of it.”
Anchored by graduate defender Blythe Obar and senior goalkeeper Azul Alvarez, the Baylor defense held firm all night. Alvarez was tested once in the 20th minute, but kept a clean sheet and guided the Bears to a hard-fought shutout and their first home victory of the 2025 season.
The Bears were connecting all night, playing as one unit from back to front. The backline stayed organized, the midfield dictated pace and the forwards consistently found each other in space. It was a team effort that kept Mississippi State chasing for much of the match.
“This is the standard, and this is what we want to build off of,” Lenard said. “We need to put together multiple games like this, and we’ll have another opportunity to do that next week.”
The Bears will be back in action at 7 p.m. Thursday, facing another SEC opponent in Texas (1-3-1) at Betty Lou Mays Field.
