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BYU Women's Soccer Closes Out MWC Slate with 4-0 Win By Darnell Dickson, The Provo Daily Herald
Oct. 24, 1999
PROVO -- Soccer is all about creating opportunities to score. The BYU women's soccer team created plenty of those opportunities Saturday night, outshooting Air Force 36-5 and winning its final Mountain West Conference match 4-0 at Cougar Field. "We're kind of on a roll now," BYU coach Jennifer Rockwood said. "We've had some positive practices and we've played very well in the last two games. "We just want to keep that momentum and stay focused so we can play our best soccer (in two weeks) when the conference tournament starts." Air Force (8-8 overall, 3-2 in the MWC) played evenly with BYU for the first 25 minutes of the match, and even had a point-blank scoring opportunity repelled by BYU keeper Jennifer Waldron at the 21:18 mark of the first half. But just seconds later, BYU's Sara Reading headed in Staci Reynolds' 40-yard free kick for the first goal of the match.
With just six minutes left in the half, BYU's Rachelle Dixon got the ball to teammate Jeni Willardson, who finessed the ball past a sliding Air Force keeper for a 2-0 halftime lead.
BYU's Maren Hendershot scored her 13th goal of the year on an assist from Willardson for a 3-0 lead, and Dixon added the final goal of the night on a rebound shot late in the second half. "They (Air Force) chase the ball so hard we wanted to spread them out," Rockwood said. "After about the first 15 minutes, we really got into our possession game and started to move the ball side to side." Waldron didn't get much work but still tallied five saves. Air Force keeper Kristy Kuhlman, meanwhile, managed 16 saves but couldn't stop the relentless BYU attack. The shutout was BYU's fifth in MWC play, with its 2-0 loss to league-leading San Diego State last week the only exception. "What I was really impressed with tonight was that a lot of times we get discouraged when we have a lot of opportunities early and don't score," Rockwood said. "Tonight we kept out composure and fought through it, and the goals came." BYU (16-3, 5-1) concludes regular season play Thursday with a non-league encounter against Long Beach State at Cougar Field.
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