Cougars finish spring with two wins

PROVO, Utah – BYU women’s soccer closed out its spring schedule with two wins at South Field on Saturday. The Cougars beat Southern Utah 2-0 in the morning before beating Utah 2-0 in the evening.

“Today was an important day for us,” BYU head coach Jennifer Rockwood said. “We wanted to make sure we finished strong. We had a lot of goals in place and things we needed to improve on from lessons learned last fall. We were able to check a lot of things off our list.”

Against rival Utah, BYU scored its first goal 25 minutes into the first half. Elena Medeiros played Madie Lyons through the Ute back line. Utah’s keeper put a hand on the shot but it wasn't enough as it bounced into the goal for a 1-0 advantage. Medeiros added the Cougars’ second goal 15 minutes into the second half. A cross into the box wasn’t headed out and Medeiros stuck it in the corner of the goal for the 2-0 lead. In the final five minutes, goalkeeper Hannah Clark made a big save and snuffed out a dangerous cross to keep the shutout intact.

Against Southern Utah, Lyons put BYU up off a pass from Medeiros before Nadia Gomes added the second goal on a penalty kick. Gomes touched the ball away from the keeper and was awarded a penalty as the keeper tried to impede her from the ball.

“We played well today and got some good results,” Rockwood said. “We had some players that really stepped up and played well for us.”

Medeiros scored a goal and added two assists over the two games Saturday. Lyons scored two goals of her own.

The Cougars have played eight games since February the contests Saturday. BYU will begin practice for the fall season this August.

“We’re really pleased with how the spring season went,” Rockwood said. “We were 7-1 and the loss that we had was to UCLA. It was great experience. We learned a lot from one of the best teams in the country. We can learn from that as we move forward.”

The Cougars will add four more freshmen who signed in February to this group. Junior Paige Hunt will also return from a mission in time for the 2015 season.