Five-goal victory at home over Texas

PROVO, Utah - Continuing its recent streak of offensive productivity, the No. 24 BYU women’s soccer team claimed their third-straight victory with a 5-0 win over Texas on Thursday at home. 

“One of the things we didn’t do last year was score as much,” head coach Jennifer Rockwood said. “We’ve tried to free up our attacking players a little bit more and we’ve seemed to reap the benefits of that so far. In the last two weeks, especially after not scoring against Utah, we’ve been spending every minute of practice in front of the goal.”

Freshman Michele Murphy led all players with two goals, an assist and three shots. Seniors Dana Oldroyd Cusick, Carlee Payne Holmoe and Lindsi Lisonbee Cutshall each also recorded one goal. Jaiden Thornock led all players with a career-high seven shots.

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The Cougars (5-1) began the game with a string of scoring opportunities, taking six shots in the first 10 minutes, including two that ricocheted off the crossbar.

The home team’s defense was tested in the 13th minute when Texas had two consecutive shots on goal. BYU met the challenge both times, denying what turned out to be the Longhorns’ best scoring chances of the night.

At the end of a scoreless first half, the Cougars had registered 15 shots. The visitors, by contrast, had taken six.

Nine minutes after the break, Cusick broke the draw with a 30-yard shot that lofted just over the keepers hands. Rachel Manning was credited with the assist.

In the 65th minute, Murphy scored her second goal of the season with a shot that floated, again, past the reach of Texas’ goalkeeper.

Less than five minutes later, Murphy scored again on a pass from Holmoe. Murphy returned the favor in the 73rd minute by assisting Holmoe on her second goal of the season to bring the score to 4-0 in BYU's favor.

“In the first half we had shot after shot, so we knew we’d get one to go in eventually,” Murphy said. “After Dana (Cusick) hit that perfect shot we all just settled in.”

Cutshall scored BYU’s final goal of the night in the 85th minute. It was the team’s 30th shot of the game, a season high, and their fourth-straight of taking more than 20 shots.

The Longhorns finished the night with eight shots.

The Cougars host No. 6 Penn State on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. The game will be broadcast on BYUtv.

Fans can also follow the action at the BYU women’s soccer Twitter page.

Order your tickets for the game and the rest of the season online now.

Attendance for the game was 2,866.