Top-seeded BYU faces No. 2 Stanford in College Cup semifinal

BYU women’s soccer is set to compete against Stanford in the College Cup semifinal match Friday.

The game will take place at 6:30 p.m. MST, in Cary, North Carolina, and will be broadcast on ESPNU.

The Cougars are coming off one of the most impressive performances in program history at South Field last week. After being down 3-0 at half against North Carolina, the Cougars came back with a vengeance, scoring four goals in the second half with the goals taking place during the last thirty minutes of the half. BYU now heads to the NCAA College Cup for the second time in the programs history.

“That was something super special,” said coach Jennifer Rockwood, remarking on the game. “To be apart of that at home in front of our fans with that group of seniors was just magical.”

Four players on the team have played in the NCAA College Cup before, including Bella Folino.

“We have a lot of girls from that 2021 team, so I think we’re going to lean on that experience and it’s going to help us for sure with the games coming up,” Folino said.

Standout players of the week include both Brecken Mozingo and Folino being named back-to-back College Soccer News Women’s National Player of the Week. Senior Jamie Shepherd also now holds the record for most games played by any BYU soccer player in program history with 107 games. Players Erin Bailey, Allie Fryer, Mozingo, Olivia Wade-Katoa and Ellie Walbruch have all scored ten plus goals this season.

Stanford last competed against Nebraska beating the Cornhuskers 2-1 in double overtime to advance to the College Cup for the 11th time in program history. During the Friday match up, Maya Doms scored the game winning goal in the first of the two overtime periods.

The last time the Cougars and the Cardinals competed against one another was last season during the second round of the NCAA Tournament. When the match ended in a tie, the Cougars advanced to the Sweet 16 due to penalty kicks. The two teams have met against each other a total of nine times with Stanford leading the overall series 5-3-1.

With Stanford being one of the best defensive teams in the country and BYU being the best scoring team in the country, Friday’s game is sure to be a fight.

“We’re a team that’s capable of scoring a lot of goals,” Folino said. “We are just gonna have to go out there and play our game and the goals will come.”

“We certainly have momentum coming off a game as powerful as UNC,” Rockwood said.