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BYU Women's Soccer Brings Home First MWC Championship
By Beth Palmer, BYU Newsnet
Nov. 8, 1999
CHULA VISTA, Calif. -- For 95 minutes Saturday afternoon, the Cougars experienced a bad case of deja vu. For two halves and the first few minutes of overtime against San Diego State, the inaugural Mountain West women's soccer championship game was looking eerily similar to last year's WAC Championship game: same teams, same 1-1 score at the end of regulation. Only this time, fortune -- aided by a well-placed Kim Lowe kick -- wrote a much sweeter ending for BYU. Six-and-a-half minutes into sudden-death overtime, the junior forward charged the net and San Diego State keeper Katherine Judkins, found a header from Sara Reading at the middle of the net and gave BYU a 2-1 win and the conference championship. Reading said that when she saw defender Staci Reynolds winding up to pass to her on the game-winning play, she had planned on going for the net. But the ball felt too far over her head so she headed it toward the middle. "Sara never misses head balls," Lowe said. "I thought she was going to put it in and I was just there to clean it up. It came right to me and I put it in." Lowe's bit of house cleaning ended the game and the Aztecs' recent dominance of the Cougars. Before Saturday, BYU had lost to San Diego State in four straight games. That streak included last season's WAC Championship game, a 2-1, four-overtime win for the Aztecs, a game that ended with a controversial goal the Cougars believed was offsides. "We haven't had much luck against San Diego State," BYU head coach Jennifer Rockwood said. "That four-overtime loss didn't settle too well for us ... we've been focusing for the last three weeks on the opportunity to play them again." Tournament MVP Maren Hendershot had just one word to describe defeating the Aztecs for a conference championship in her senior year: "Fabulous." "I don't know if you can go out any better than that," she said. The Aztecs took an early lead in the game's 18th minute when defender Fay de Leon angled a corner kick just into the far side of the net. It was San Diego State's first shot on goal in a game dominated by the Cougars' speed and persistence, but gave the Aztecs a 1-0 lead nonetheless. Despite having out-shot the Aztecs 7-1 when the first goal was scored and 10-4 at the half, the Cougars found themselves down 1-0 until the game's 65th minute when a Reading penalty kick tied the game. The kick came after a controversial foul call on the Aztecs' Carrie Hawkins. BYU's Sarah Higham and Hawkins both went up for a ball near the Aztecs' goal, but Hawkins came down with her leg in Higham's chest. "I honestly don't feel it should have been a penalty kick, necessarily," Hawkins said. "We both went up hard. Maybe I'm stronger than her, I don't know. She went down and I didn't." Rockwood felt differently, however. "Higham got taken out in the penalty box," she said. "I don't know what else you call. ... It was obvious. But it doesn't matter how you get them, as long as they go in." But the Aztecs were lucky the game was still close enough to be controversial in the second half. The action stayed primarily on the offensive side of the field for BYU during both halves, as the Cougars won possession after possession from the slower Aztecs. San Diego State managed just one shot after the first half and none in overtime. BYU out-shot the Aztecs 27-5 in the game. Judkins was the only thing keeping San Diego State in the game, as she responded to the Cougars' onslaught with brilliant diving- and punch-saves. "That was probably the best keeping I've seen in any game," Rockwood said. "But the girls kept fighting through. They didn't get frustrated when things didn't go their way. ... We out-hustled them. I couldn't be more proud as a coach. Everything we've been working on came together: our persistence, composure, our work rate. It all came together." San Diego State head coach Chuck Clegg said BYU deserved to win the championship. "Their team speed hurt us," he said. "Once you beat a great team like BYU that many times in a row they get motivated to get back at you." The win was all the more impressive for the Cougars because it came without much offensive contribution from their All-American Hendershot, who was defended by as many as four Aztecs at once during the game. "I think we were playing follow the leader out there," she said. "But I don't mind if they're going to follow me. I don't care if my job is to score goals or if my job is just to occupy space so others can score. That's fine too, we just want the win." Hendershot was joined on the All-Tournament Team by teammates Reading and Reynolds. Following their conference championship, the Cougars' season will continue in the NCAA Tournament. Hendershot said the team is in prime condition to extend its season.
"Watch out, here we come," she said. "We're peaking right now. We've been playing our best soccer this last week and we'll go into the tournament with a vengeance after being almost kept out of it."
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