Williams’ strike, suffocating defense, pushes Tech past BU, 1-0

Friday, October 4

Lubbock, Texas

7 p.m.

Texas Tech Athletics

10-2-1, 5-0-1

Baylor

6-5-3, 1-3-2

Baylor

Texas Tech

Williams’ strike, suffocating defense, pushes Tech past BU, 1-0

October 04, 2024 | Women's Soccer

Box Score Box Score (PDF) Press Conference Highlights

The goal was Williams’ 34th-career and 15th-game winner

By: Andrew Stern

LUBBOCK, Texas – A 62nd minute goal from Ashleigh Williams and suffocating defense effort from the backline propelled Texas Tech Soccer to a 1-0 win over Baylor, Friday night at the John Walker Soccer Complex.

In arguably its strongest defensive performance of the season and in front of a crowd of over 1500, Texas Tech's (10-2-1, 5-0-1 Big 12) backline and GK Faith Nguyen limited the Baylor (6-5-3, 1-3-2 Big 12) attack to just four total shots and a pair of shots on goal.

After outshooting Baylor 8-1 in the opening half, the Red Raiders stayed the course in the second period, as the Red Raiders finally broke through just 21 seconds into the 62nd minute, when a rising shot from Williams deflected off BU goalkeeper Azul Alvarez and the crossbar before falling into the bottom corner of the net.

The goal was Williams' 34th-career goal and 15th game winner of her career. The forward needs just one more game winner to tie former Big 12 Player of the Year and First Round NWSL draft pick Kirsten Davis for the second-most game-winning goals in program history. Williams also recorded career points 74 and 75 on the strike, which was made possible by a pair of strong passes from Elise Anderson and Kaitlyn Giametta.

After scoring twice in Waco in a 2-0 win, Williams once again was the difference in the Red Raiders third straight win over BU.

Armed with the 1-0 lead, the Red Raiders again led by their backline were able to close out the 23rd-straight Big 12 result (19-0-4), the 19th-straight home regular season win and the 10th-cosnecutive Big 12 home clean sheet.

With the second half goal tonight, the Red Raiders are now outscoring teams 26-1 at Walker this season and have outscored teams 17-1 in the second half. The Red Raiders also extended their Big 12 leading goal margin to +8 (9-1) for the year.

HEAD COACH TOM STONE:
"This is not 'coach speak' but I think we're pretty far from being complete. We talk about that quite a bit. We're winning games and playing some passionate and organized defense at the end of games to close them out, but we haven't seen a complete performance from the team yet. The know that. We're not hanging our heads about it, and we're excited about who we are and where we are. We also know there's still work to do because this is a beginning of a run that includes West Virginia, BYU, Cincinnati, Colorado and Iowa State. This is the beginning of that whole run. Fortunately we have one down, but there's five to go."

On Williams:
"Ashleigh had a very complete performance tonight. She defended first tonight which took a lot of work, because Baylor is an excellent passing team and they do a good job of keeping possession, which causes the forwards to work. To break them down you it starts with your forwards. I thought she led the charge there, and Z [Zdrojewski] did well as did Alana [Harry] who went up front. Ash was extraordinary on the defensive end which created a lot of turnovers. Then she started to get the ball in dangerous places. When we get the counter and got her out wide and she was one-on-one, we knew she was going to one of two moves. She has a couple of go-to moves and she went with one of them. It got her free. I couldn't tell if it was going to get over the keeper but thankfully it did. It's just another match with an Ashleigh Williams game-winner."

UP NEXT:
The Red Raiders continue the important three-match home stand with a matchup against No. 14 Colorado on Thursday night. First touch from Walker is set for 7 p.m.