No. 14 Tech drops, 2-1, late heartbreaker to BYU

Friday, October 25

Lubbock, Texas

7 p.m.

Texas Tech Athletics

13-3-2, 8-1-2

BYU

8-5-5, 6-2-3

BYU

Texas Tech

No. 14 Tech drops, 2-1, late heartbreaker to BYU

October 25, 2024 | Women's Soccer

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

The Red Raiders saw BYU score twice in the second half to fall for the first time in conference play since Sept. 25, 2022

By: Andrew Stern

LUBBOCK, Texas – Despite a late first half goal from Taylor Zdrojewski, No. 14 Texas Tech Soccer fell to BYU, 2-1 at a packed John Walker Soccer Complex Friday.

Seeking its second-straight Big 12 title, Texas Tech (13-3-2, 8-1-2 Big 12) enjoyed a 1-0 lead at the break, but a pair of set piece goals from BYUs (8-5-5, 6-2-3 Big 12) Mackenzee Vance and Avery Frischknecht gave the Cougars the dramatic come-from-behind win.

The loss, which was Tech's first in Big 12 play since a Sept. 25, 2022 setback to UT, snapped a 27-match (22-0-5) Big 12 unbeaten streak and a 20-match (19-0-1) home regular season unbeaten streak.

Needing just a win to clinch a share of Big 12 regular season title, the Red Raiders instead will settle for a second-place finish in the standings, marking the third consecutive top-two regular season finish for the Red Raiders.

After a flying start that included a shot on goal just 40 seconds in, as well as multiple corner kicks of the first 90 seconds of play, the Red Raiders dominated the first 10 minutes of action.

Despite not scoring, the Red Raiders had arguably their strongest chance to score midway through the 10 minute when a BYU defender cleared a shot from Zdrojewski off the line.

Despite multiple strong scoring opportunities from both sides, neither team was able to find the back of the net until 10 seconds into the 41st minute when a Macy Blackburn free kick service found Zdrojewski in the middle of the BYU box. With a seam in the box, Zdrojewski redirected a header into the open goal for her eighth strike of the season.

Armed with the lead and 45 minutes from claiming a share of the Big 12 title, the Red Raiders allowed BYU to equalize midway through the 53rd minute when Vance buried a free kick from 30-yards out.

Just 90 seconds later, the Red Raiders nearly pulled back in front when a perfect pass from Alana Harry and back-heel flick from Zdrojewski found a streaking Peyton Parsons. Wide open in the box, Parson took a hit without a touch and sent a low shot that beat BYU keeper Lynette Hernaez before clanging off the post.

The game remained deadlocked at one, until the closing moments of the 89th minute when Zdrojewski was hip checked by BYUs Avery Frischknecht in the box. Despite the contact, no PK was awarded.

With the time running out, BYU raced down the field in search of the go-ahead goal. As she raced toward goal, Allie Fryer was taken out by a Red Raider defender and free kick was awarded with less than one minute to play.

On the ensuing free kick, Lucy Kesler delivered a perfect ball that Frischknecht was able to head past Nguyen to seal the win for the Cougars.

Based on the results of tonight's other matches around the league, the Red Raiders have earned the No. 2 seed in next week's Big 12 Championship. The Red Raiders will face the winner of No. 7 Arizona and No. 10 Baylor in the Quarterfinals next Saturday (Nov. 2) at 5:30 p.m.

HEAD COACH TOM STONE:
"I'm not really sure I can remember a game where we hit the post, the crossbar twice and the other team cleared it off the line. And we didn't win. That's some unreal bad luck. The clearance off the line was going in. Then we hit the inside of the post and two cross bars. That's a lot to stomach. I don't think anything but those chances not going in were why we lost. If one of them goes in we're good because we've defended so well all year. We had a lot of late forays down the field. They were tired and we were tired. We had all of our starters back on at the end and they were running well. But our hastiness in the last 10 minutes cost us. We had the ball and were in good places, but we wanted rush the next decision instead of looking for the right play to set up a chance to score. We were a little hasty on the ball and we need to address it."

On the final minute of action:
"BYU got a set piece, and they converted it. It might be the first set piece we have given up in years. We generally don't give up set pieces. We were all in the right places and their kid went up and got it. She made a great play. You can argue whether it was a foul or not, but the ref called it. At that point, we were already aware of what the score was in Oklahoma and we knew we had to win. That's why we moved Molly into the midfield. That's why we brought up everyone up front. That's why we pushed all our defenders up the field. At that point, a tie wasn't going to be enough to get us the trophy. We had to win. They obviously couldn't break us down to score but they did score two really good set pieces. The first one was unreal that their kid hit. I don't know that she hit it there on purpose, but it was impressive."

On what the team can take into the Big 12 Championship next year:
"We were undefeated in 27-straight Big 12 games so this one hurt. We're going to take this feeling of disappointment with us to Kansas City, the feeling of disappointment that we had the opportunity to win a trophy and let it slip away. That will be the emotional part of it. Now it's about what are we going to do about it? What's our response going to be? Are we going to cry all the way to Kansas City or are we going to come back tomorrow and get back to work. I think that the latter will be the case. We have some things to address. We have to look at that second set piece and we need to look at why we're having so many glaring wide open chances that we're not converting offensively. And then we need to maybe look at our substitution patterns from a coaching standpoint. Maybe we could have gotten both outside backs off and they would have been fresher at the end. From a staff perspective we need to look at everything. But it's small tweaks now because it's too late to rebuild your whole team. I will say Kate Libel played really well tonight as did Millie [Elwood], but we were missing Chloe [Soto] tonight. She's our enforcer through the middle of the field and we didn't have that today."

UP NEXT:
The Red Raiders will face the winner of Wednesday's opener between UofA and Baylor one week from Saturday (Nov. 2) at CPKC Stadium in Kansas City. First touch from KC is set for 5:30 p.m.