No. 1-ranked BYU did not get the result it was hoping for in a 3-3 tie with TCU Thursday night at South Field, but things could have been worse for the Cougars, who never led in their Big 12 opener.
TCU punched BYU in the mouth early, putting the Cougars in their first deficit of the season in just the second minute of the match. The Horned Frogs added to their advantage in the 27th minute off the foot of sophomore forward and Draper, Utah, native Seven Castain, becoming the first team this year to score two goals in one half on BYU.
“You’re never going to go through the whole season without adversity,” BYU head coach Jennifer Rockwood said. “It shows a lot about our resiliency and our confidence to be able to come back and fight from behind … That’s something last year I didn’t know if we had that but this year this group has it.”
The Cougars found the back of the net on a set piece taken by sophomore forward Ellie Walbruch in the 36th minute. Her ball connected with leaping senior midfielder Rachel McCarthy’s head to bring the match within one score going into the half.
Coming into Thursday’s contest, BYU was riding a hot streak having beaten both UVU and Utah each by five goals. That potent offense was on display Thursday when the Cougars came out of the half and quickly regained momentum on sophomore forward Allie Fryer’s match tying goal in the 54th minute.
But BYU’s defense struggled to contain a TCU attack that hadn’t scored more than two goals in any contest this season.
“TCU … proved to be able to score goals more than we had hoped,” Rockwood said. “Seven (Castain) scored two really nice goals.”
Castain’s second goal came in the 61st minute when she got inside the box, making the most of her opportunity and giving her team another lead.
Still, BYU would not be deterred, coming back once again to tie things up. Sophomore forward Erin Bailey scored the equalizer for the Cougars in the 78th minute leaving the match in a tie.
BYU and TCU had been picked one and two, respectively, in the Big 12’s preseason polling. However, the Horned Frogs came to Provo with something to prove after falling out of the national rankings following their loss to Butler.
The visitors from Fort Worth proved they could play with the nation’s best, and reminded BYU that its success is going to motivate opponents to be at their best when they play the Cougars.
“It was just a really good reminder that we have a target on our back,” Bailey said. “No matter where we’re ranked. We’re always going to have that target.”
It forced the Cougars to reach deep as they faced real adversity for the first time this season.
“This game showed that we have a lot of fight and a lot of heart and we’re not going to give up,” Bailey said. “It was one of the first games that we’ve had where we really are tested … We got to see how we respond as a team and I think although we didn’t get the result we wanted it shows that we do have that heart, we do have that fire. We’re not going to go down easy, and we’re going to do everything we can to get more goals in the back of the net than the other team.”
The Cougars came just short of that goal Thursday night. Though with the tie BYU remains unbeaten all-time in conference matches versus TCU dating back to the schools’ time in the Western Athletic Conference and Mountain West Conference. The Cougars’ lone program loss to the Horned Frogs came in the 2018 NCAA Tournament.
What historically may have seemed like a safe bet for BYU to get a win in its Big 12 debut quickly proved to be the school’s biggest challenge of the season to date.
The school’s initial league contest ultimately left the Cougars frustrated as they struggled to stop the Horned Frogs from wasting the final minutes of the match, keeping the top ranked school from getting much of a shot at earning the victory.
BYU will play its final non-conference match Saturday in Logan against Utah State before resuming Big 12 play at Baylor next week.