By Marissa Essenburg | Sports Writer
After closing the regular season with a 2-0 win over Oklahoma State, Baylor soccer is set to return to Fort Worth for the 2025 Big 12 Soccer Tournament at Garvey-Rosenthal Soccer Stadium.
Headed into the postseason, Baylor (12-3-3, 7-3-1 Big 12) holds fifth place in the Big 12 after delivering its most complete regular season under head coach Michelle Lenard. The No. 23-ranked Bears will face No. 15 Texas Tech (13-2-2, 7-1-2) in the first round Monday at 11:30 a.m.
With TCU (14-2-1, 7-1-1 Big 12) sitting atop the conference at No. 1 in the Big 12 and No. 5 nationally, the postseason field is as strong as it’s been in years, with five Big 12 teams ranked in the top 25.
No. 19 West Virginia (13-2-3, 8-0-3) follows as the No. 2 seed while No. 11 Colorado (13-2-3, 7-1-2) sits third in the Big 12, with its first conference loss coming at the hands of Baylor. Texas Tech rounds out the top four with Baylor just two points behind.
After mid-October setbacks to TCU and UCF, the Bears look to climb back toward the top as tournament play begins four days after their final conference match.
Despite the program’s steady rise under Lenard, the Bears know regular-season success is only a small part of the equation. Now, they’ll look to write a new chapter of the same story that once lifted Baylor to Big 12 glory in 2017 and 2018.
“We haven’t won anything yet,” graduate midfielder and captain Kai Hayes said. “We’re having a good season, but we haven’t won a Big 12 title since 2018, and we haven’t been to the NCAA Tournament in three years. Sure, 11 or 12 wins is great right now, but it doesn’t mean anything until we’ve actually won something.”
After defeating Arizona in the opening round of last year’s Big 12 Tournament, Baylor’s run ended with a narrow 2-1 loss to Texas Tech in the quarterfinals — a result it will look to avenge this time around, as fate brings the matchup full-circle. With the top eight teams advancing to the tournament, the No. 5-seeded Bears will once again meet the Red Raiders, the same team that dealt them their first loss of the season.
Should Baylor advance, a win would send the Bears to the semifinals to face the winner of No. 1 TCU and No. 8 BYU, giving them a chance at redemption against the Horned Frogs on the same field where they fell just three weeks ago.
The Bears’ senior core has carried the program’s resurgence this season, aiming to cap their Baylor careers with the championship that’s eluded them thus far.
“These girls have built a special legacy that they’ll leave behind here at Baylor, and so with leadership from all of them, what their team wants — what we want — is to win. That’s our primary focus,” Lenard said.
Ahead of their first home match against No. 17 Mississippi State in August, senior midfielder Tyler Isgrig said belief in the team’s potential has never been stronger.
“This year’s Big 12 Tournament doesn’t have as many teams, and the championship will be hosted at Betty Lou [Mays Field], so that’s definitely another motivator,” Isgrig said. “We are hoping to aim for the automatic bid, but with the pieces we have together this year, I believe we are in a place where we can do that.”
From an 8-8-5 finish a year ago to a 12-3-3 record this season, the Bears have rewritten their story, and they’ll look to cap their Big 12 campaign by hoisting new hardware on their home field Saturday night.
The Bears will open tournament play against No. 4-seeded Texas Tech Monday at 11:30 a.m. at Garvey-Rosenthal Soccer Stadium. The match will be streamed on ESPN+.
