Texas 2, BYU 0
Nov 15, 2007 | Soccer
November 15, 2007
Freshman forward Alisha Ortiz scored two first-half goals to propel No. 6 Texas past No. 24 Brigham Young, 2-0, in the NCAA Women's Soccer Championship First Round at Aggie Soccer Stadium on Thursday, Nov. 15.
Texas (15-3-5) will face the winner of the Stephen F. Austin-Texas A&M match on Saturday, Nov. 17 at 5:30 p.m. (CT).
The Longhorns win 15 matches for the fourth time in program history, all under the watch of current head coach Chris Petrucelli. With the shutout, the Longhorns tie the school record of 10 blanks in a single season set during the 2006 campaign.
BYU (17-3-2) ends the season in the first round for the third consecutive year. The Cougars were held scoreless for the fifth time in 23 matches.
Ortiz (Highland Village, Texas) scored her first goal in the 10th minute of the game. The play started when junior defender Jill Gilbeau (San Diego, Calif.) dribbled in front of the benches on the far side. She passed to Arlitt who drew the goalkeeper out of the net. Arlitt slid and kicked the ball towards Ortiz who dribbled around a BYU defender before shooting into the net. Cougars' goalkeeper Erika Woodbury came out to defend Arlitt leaving the nets open for Ortiz's score.
In the 18th minute, Ortiz netted her second goal off a deflected shot by senior forward Kelsey Carpenter. Carpenter fired one of her 2 shots of the game but was blocked by a BYU defender. Ortiz collected the rebound and put it in the far corner of the net for the first multi-goal game of her career and her third career goal.
Ortiz made her first start since a 2-0 loss to No. 5 Texas A&M on Oct. 12, 2007, ironically in the same stadium as today's first round contest. Ortiz is the first Horn to score two goals in an NCAA match since Kelly Wilson scored twice in a 2-1 win over West Virginia in the second round on Nov. 14, 2004. She is the third UT player to score two goals in a game as Arlitt and Carpenter each had two multi-goal performances during the regular season.
Junior goalkeeper Dianna Pfenninger (Sugar Land, Texas) won her 40th game, saving 9 shots on goal and recording her seventh shutout of the year. She saved three crucial attempts in a two-minute span at the 83-minute mark as the BYU offense pressured the UT defense for a score.
Woodbury, who has only given up two goals once this year, allowed 2 scores and saved 5 shots on goal. The record-setting Cougar senior ends her final season with a 16-4-2 record.
BYU Postgame Quotes
HEAD COACH JENNIFER ROCKWOOD: "I'm really proud of the way our team played, especially in the second half. We knew coming out we had a tough draw. We've had a couple tough draws the last two years. But this was just a tremendous year. I'm really proud of the girls and the way they battled. We gave up and early goal and sometimes that's hard to bounce back from. We continued to battle and I think we turned the corner in the second half. We had some pretty good chances, with 25 shots you hope to at least get one of them. I know we had a couple of wide open looks; it just didn't go our way. They fought all the way through until the last second of the game. That's all you can ask of your players. Sometimes it doesn't go your way. I have a great group of girls coming back next year, so we hope to be back here soon."
JUNIOR FORWARD KATIE FELLOWS: "I think we were really unlucky in the second half, things just didn't fall our way. The whole thing for us was that we didn't play in the first half the way we did in the second. If we would have played the way we did in the second half in the first then this would have been a whole different game."
SENIOR MIDFIELDER NATALIE NATE-HENRIKSEN: "Our talk at halftime was about how we just needed to have the heart it just comes down to desire and who wants it more. I think we had the capability in the first half we just flopped in winning 50-50 balls. I think for our team that's a big factor. When we win 50-50 balls our confidence increases, our intensity increases and we tend to go forward more. That was the main talk at halftime. Just about being more confident, winning 50-50 balls, and just having the desire to go out there and leave it all on the field."
Texas Postgame Quotes
FORWARD ALISHA ORTIZ: "It felt really good to come out and score two goals in our first NCAA game and contribute to the team."
GOALKEEPER DIANNA PFENNINGER: "I felt a little bit of pressure, but our defense did well and Alisha did well coming out and scoring two in the first half so we just had a lot of confidence going in to the second half and just pulling out a big win for us."
DEFENDER KASEY MOORE: "We weren't expecting to come here and so we were a little shocked to come here. We talked about it as a team and realized this is the seed we were given. This is where we are going to go. There's nothing we can do to change it so we just put it behind us. We had BYU first and that was the first thought in our mind; we'll get through BYU first. They are a great team and they've put up a some good results and they had a great record."
TEXAS HEAD COACH CHRIS PETRUCELLI: "I thought our team showed a lot of character starting the game the way they started it. We always talk about starting the game well and certainly two goals put us in a good situation. Look, if we get one goal up, we are hard to beat because we are really solid in the back and we have a very talented goalkeeper. If we get two up, we know it makes it really difficult on the other team."
