Cougars Fall In Penalty Kicks

LOS ANGELES -- With extra minutes and extra frames in the first round of the NCAA Women's Soccer College Cup, the No. 17 BYU women's soccer lost in penalty kicks with a 3-4 final to the UCLA Bruins on their home field, Thursday.

"I think we had a fantastic game tonight," said BYU head coach Jennifer Rockwood. "Our girls trained so hard this season and this was an outstanding game that really could've gone either way."

After double overtime ended in a scoreless tie, the Bruins and Cougars headed into penalty kicks with each team attempting five kicks. The team with the most goals after five frames would win the game. A coin toss decided the Cougars to shoot first.

Lauren Anderson made the first attempt for BYU to put them up 1-0. Lauren Barnes tied the tally for UCLA with a goal of her own. The Cougars missed their next two attempts from goalkeeper McKinzie Olson and Nicole Gilliam while the Bruins netted both from Chelsea Cline and Dana Wall.

With BYU needing a goal to not fall behind, Dana Oldroyd netted her attempt for the Cougars to put the score at 2-3 favoring the Bruins. Olson then blocked UCLA's shot by Zakiya Bywaters.

To tie the score at three for BYU, Carlee Payne netted her attempt and Olson again made a huge save to keep the score at 3-3 when Natalia Ledezma attempted her shot. In extra frames, however, midfielder Jessica Ringwood missed her shot for BYU and Elise Britt made her for the Bruins to steal the win.

"We had a lot of fun this year," Rockwood said. "Of course you always want to win another game but I think we accomplished a lot this year so I'm happy about how this ended for our seniors and we'll start now to get ready for next year."

In regulation, the Cougars controlled the tempo of the game with big plays on goal from Jennie Marshall, Payne and Anderson who combined for eight of BYU's 10 shots.

"It's hard to pick just one player that really stood out tonight," Rockwood said. "I think all the girls played hard tonight and gave it their best. It's hard at the end of the season to lose in PK's but we really had a great year and I'm proud of them."

In the 43rd minute of play, BYU's Payne created the first good look on goal with a shot off a corner. The save by Bruin goalkeeper Chante' Sandiford was the first save by either keeper in the game.

Another good look on goal came with just 10 minutes to play in regulation from BYU midfielder Lauren Anderson after carrying the ball in the center of the field and taking a shot at the top of the box.

Heading into regulation, the Cougars took eight shots to UCLA's 12.

The first overtime ended after another 10 minutes of scoreless action with the Cougars taking two corner kicks and neither team attempting a shot on goal.

The Cougars had two attempts on goal in the second overtime before the extra 20 minutes of play came to a scoreless end to put the teams into penalty kicks.

"You have to give a lot of credit to UCLA," Rockwood said. "They're a talented team with great players and were more direct than we're used so we just had to try to adjust to that. They're a fantastic team with a lot of experience."

UCLA's Sydney Leroux had four shots in the victory with teammate Zakiya Bywaters adding three to their team's total of 15.