womens soccer
 

I've found BYU womens soccer to be very entertaining to watch. I usually watch several games on BYUTV. This year's team has a lot of talent, including Ashley Hatch who has played games for the US national U-23 team. They are nationally ranked to start the season (underrated at #19, IMO) and just beat Arizona in an exhibition game. I think they have a good chance to advance several rounds in the NCAA tournament like the team from a couple of years ago that made it to the elite 8.

I watched several games at BYU. Watched maybe parts of a couple of games on byutv past few years.

Maybe I can get my wife to watch with the kids.

a couple of BYU mentions.

http://espn.go.com/espnw/news-commen...-soccer-season

I enjoy following the program. However, I am not a fan of the offensive scheme used by BYU. It doesn't allow for enough indirect play and BYU players tend to lack the ability to break down defensive players in the final third of the field.

I think that describes how they've been most of the time in the past, but from what I saw, I didn't think that was the case with last year's team during the second half of the season especially as the younger players came around. The offense last year I thought was less about long ball and more precise, while still taking advantage of their speed. It was the defense that was the main weakness last year I thought. The team last year was also very young, with the freshmen and sophomores seeming to be the more talented players on the team.

They just beat Arizona 3-2 in an exhibition and start off playing in Hawaii tomorrow against a top 25 Cal team, followed by playing #3 Stanford late on Monday. It will be interesting to see how they do against these two very legit opponents on a neutral field.

It would be great to make it to the final four. My prognostication is that BYU women's soccer will make it there before the Men's basketball team.

Even though womens volleyball at BYU has always been pretty good, I wouldn't have predicted a couple of years ago that they'd get to the final four before womens soccer.

BYU beats Cal 2-0! On the pre-season coaches poll BYU was ranked #19 and Cal #18. On the other poll BYU was #16 and Cal #15. On Monday BYU plays #3 Stanford.

BYU moves up to #14 this week on one of the polls. The coaches poll is not out yet.

http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/colle...rankings/women

Hawaiian weather cancels game against Stanford.

yeah, too bad. It would have been interesting to see how they would have done against a team considered to be a serious national championship contender going into the season. Now they host Colorado on Friday.

Stanford is saying they're trying to reschedule the game.

http://www.gostanford.com/ViewArticl...B_OEM_ID=30600

Stanford game rescheduled for Sept. 7th at Stanford. Also, it sounds like Stanford will be playing a game at BYU possibly next year.

A very well played 2-0 win over Colorado on Friday. CU eliminated BYU in the last two NCAA tournaments. They weren't supposed to be quite as good this year, but still a good team. BYU is looking very strong this year and could be in the top 10 on this week's polls. They're at Nebraska tonight.

This site has a lot of good info for following NCAA womens soccer:

http://herosports.com/college-soccer...-women-soccer/

A 2-0 win on the road at Nebraska is nothing to sneeze at. So far, every win has come against teams that were in the NCAA tournament last year. Not bad. Looking forward to watching us put the beatdown on the Utes Friday night. Then they're at Stanford. The way BYU is playing right now I think they have a chance in that one, but it will be tough. If BYU manages to win these next two we'll be looking at a top 5 national ranking.

BYU actually moved up in the rankings to #5 even after a 1-0 loss at Stanford. The schedule gets easier tonight as they host Utah State. Even after most teams have only played 5 or 6 games so far, there are only a small handful of undefeated teams left.

This is a fun clip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErUp-Zmn6jA

Nice article about RM Paige Hunt's mission.

http://universe.byu.edu/2015/09/30/b...nary-at-heart/

Why did they struggle to score against Gonzaga?

That was BYU's first game playing without Ashley Hatch. Maybe it took them a while to adjust. Gonzaga's keeper also had a great game with 8 saves. They played better against Portland a couple of nights later.

Why were they playing without Hatch? Is she injured or playing for the national team?

She's the financial clerk in her ward and was late on her quarterly report, had to get it done that night.

Out 4-6 weeks with knee injury.

Apparently she injured it in the Oregon State game and didn't know about it until after an MRI.

Drats.

I think they've been missing Hatch out there. She would command so much attention from the other team that it would open up everyone else for BYU. Hunt was also out for the last couple of games. She should be back for the next one and even Hatch is rumored to possibly be back for the next game.

This past week was their worst of the season, a loss and a draw. Hopefully the Committee notices that was without its stars.

Both USF and SCU have pretty good rpi's though. In the world of NCAA D1 womens soccer they would be considered good opponents. It's not a huge problem as long as BYU wins the last three. If Hatch can play in all or at least one of the games coming up and she's expected to be back for the NCAAs, and if BYU plays well when she comes back, then the selection committee will likely count that in BYU's favor.

Ashley Hatch hasn't played though I saw that her younger sister played. Any news when she will come back. I realize the committee takes into consideration temporary loss of key players.

Now I read somewhere that they're hoping Hatch can play in the NCAA tournament but she just started rehab and it depends on how that goes.

Congratulations to BYU womens soccer: WCC champions!

And Ashley Hatch is back. She played in the 4-1 win over St. Mary's Saturday. Now the NCAA releases its brackets later today. BYU should get at least one home game, and hopefully a top 4 seed. Hatch being back in time for the tournament and the team having played very well in her first game back on Saturday could get BYU some favorable treatment from the committee.

Let's hope they give BYU the benefit of the doubt.

BYU got a home game against one of the weakest teams in the field (UVU). But then they probably get 1 seed Stanford next. There is quite a bit of griping on Cougarboard over it.

Some things to keep in mind though:

The NCAA only seeds the top 16, so only 4 seeded teams per region. After that they just try to make things regional and easier for travel for everyone else. So just because BYU gets Stanford next doesn't mean they're an 8 seed, any more than UVU is a 9. UVU would get a 16 under a tournament where everyone was seeded and BYU would probably get a 5. The idea of getting a 5 seed is consistent with BYU's #18 in the rpi.

So why did Santa Clara get a 4 seed when BYU didn't? Well, BYU didn't beat Santa Clara, so that's a wash. Also, Santa Clara's schedule turned out to be a little harder than BYU's. BYU tried by scheduling a bunch of P12 teams, but unfortunately except for Stanford to whom they lost, and Cal, who did alright, the rest were all from the bottom of the conference, including the utes. Santa Clara also beat Stanford, which is completely escaping those who are complaining. BYU had some ok wins, but except for rpi #24 Cal, none against teams that made the field.

However, BYU can play through this. They should clobber UVU. After that, I fully believe they're capable of beating Stanford. If anything, the committee gave BYU a break there by giving them a rematch against a 1 seed they came pretty close against. Toward the end of the match something seemed to click and BYU had Stanford on its heels with a couple of shots hitting the crossbar. They know they can play with them. I think it's going to be a great game.

The new signees:

http://byucougars.com/w-soccer/four-...-sign-play-byu

BYU is looking very good so far. Impressive road wins at Washington State, Penn State, Ohio State and Utah. PSU and OSU are top 25 teams. WSU is pretty good. Utah, who knows. Not terrible anyway.

The NCAA is moving the final four away from Cary, NC. The dates set for that were going to be a Friday-Sunday. Now the NCAA site no longer says "Cary, NC", but curiously, the official dates have suddenly changed to Friday-Saturday. They're still trying to lock down a venue, but it would seem to me BYU being a legitimate contender for getting there makes them play it safe and deal with that and change the dates before it becomes an issue later. They can always blame having to make a last minute change for having the games played back to back.

By the way, this is a nice article from about the best site out there for covering college soccer that mentions BYU

http://herosports.com/news/d1-womens...ntender-ladder

All three forwards can score, making them versatile. The left back concerns me a bit, and that Nebraska game is a headscratcher, but it is a fun team to watch right now.

Here is the link to BYU.

http://herosports.com/news/d1-womens...ender-ladder#3

With a win at home Saturday BYU will at least tie for the conference championship for the 6th year in a row.

Does Pepperdine get the automatic bid due to the tiebreaker of defeating BYU?

Yes, but it doesn't matter. Both teams were going to get in anyway.

All three WCC teams made it to the round of 32. Next round might see some losses considering Santa Clara goes against number Stanford and Pepperdine goes against NCState.

BYU against the Sooners of OU at 4:00 PM, I believe EST, but not certain about that. OU defeated SMU 1-0. I don't know how they stack up against BYU, but we may be okay, as BYU easily defeated SMU in Provo, 4-0.