SPOKANE, Wash. — In most years, BYU women’s soccer would be the ranked team and Gonzaga would be looking for the upset when the two teams meet.

This season, the Cougars have struggled with consistency in posting a 5-3-1 preseason record, but the Bulldogs have been dominant, rolling to a 10-1 mark and a No. 16 national ranking while outscoring its opponents 35-3.

Gonzaga was primed for its first-ever victory against BYU.

So much for the setup.

BYU blasted No. 16 Gonzaga 6-1 in the first West Coast Conference game of the season for both teams on Saturday. The Cougars knocked the Bulldogs out of their eight-game winning streak at home, and scored four goals in the first 14 minutes of the match.

“The girls really stepped up tonight,” BYU head coach Jennifer Rockwood said. “We booked a tough non-conference schedule and have struggled on the road this year, and we wanted to come out and prove to ourselves that we could get off to a good start. I’m really proud of the way we played.”

Sophomore Brecken Mozingo collected the first goal of the night in the seventh minute, with the ball landing in the bottom left corner of the net. It was Mozingo’s fourth goal of the season.

Gonzaga took a shot on goal in the eighth minute, but Cassidy Smith was able to make the save. Smith would go on to have three total saves in the contest.

The second goal of the night came from Bella Folino as the ball nicked off the crossbar and went in at 11 minutes. Two minutes later, a left-footed bullet by Mozingo bending inside the right post took the Cougar lead to 3-0.

Cameron Tucker scored the fourth goal for the Cougars at the 14 minute mark.

BYU went up 5-0 with Rachel McCarthy finding the back of the net for the 12th goal of her BYU career in the 31st minute.

“It was an unbelievable goal by Rachel tonight, ” Rockwood said. “I think there’s more to come from Rachel this season. She can strike it, and we’ve seen her do it many times. We’re excited to see that from her a few more times in conference play.”

The Zags scored their first and only goal of the night off a penalty kick that flew inside the right post by Haley Archuleta in the final second of the first half.

In the second half, Mikayla Colohan scored a left-footed goal in the 56th minute off an assist from Tucker. Colohan’s goal was No. 43 for her career, and her eighth goal of the season.

“This was a huge game,” Rockwood said. “Obviously, Gonzaga came in ranked and on quite a roll. We wanted to come out and show that we’ve played some challenging teams and challenged ourselves. But, the girls really showed up tonight.”

BYU owned 51 percent of the possession in the game, and outshot Gonzaga 22-14, with a 14-5 advantage in shots on goal. Tonight’s offensive performance by the Cougars resulted in the Bulldogs being outshot by an opponent for the first time this season.

BYU’s next game will be at home on South Field against Saint Mary’s on Wednesday, Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. MDT and will be available on the BYU Sports Network — BYU Radio 107.9 FM/BYU Cougars App and BYUtv.org

BYU women’s volleyball sweeps San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — No. 10 BYU women’s volleyball swept its first conference road trip of the season after a 3-0 victory (25-23, 25-16, 25-18) over San Francisco Saturday afternoon. On Friday, the Cougars swept Santa Clara.

BYU is now 14-1 overall and 4-0 in West Coast Conference play. The Cougars are on a seven-match winning streak, winning 21 straight sets in those victories, all sweeps.

Taylen Ballard-Nixon led BYU with 10 kills in the match. It was her fifth time this season reaching double-digit kills and second match in a row doing so. Heather Gneiting had nine kills and had a .421 hitting percentage. Kenzie Koeber, Erin Livingston and Kennedy Eschenberg each had six kills.

The Cougars had a .250 hitting percentage on 100 attacks in the match. San Francisco hit .055 on 91 attacks. Both teams had 38 digs. BYU dominated at the net with 14 blocks to USF’s three.

Set 1 was a back-and-forth start to the match, as the teams combined for 11 ties and nine lead changes.

The Cougars eventually got out to a 16-12 lead and had some separation, but the Dons fought back and eventually held a 22-19 lead late in the set. BYU head coach Heather Olmstead called a timeout at that point. After that, BYU went on a 6-1 run to close out the set that included an Eschenberg kill, a Tayler Hifo ace, back-to-back blocks and a Ballard-Nixon kill off of a broken play, for the 25-23 set victory

Once again, BYU got out to a 16-12 lead in Set 2. This time, the Cougars did not allow the Dons to claw back, ending the set on a 9-4 run. Hifo had another ace, and served for four other BYU points to get the Cougars to 24-16. Eschenberg finished off the set with a kill for the 25-16 set victory.

For the third consecutive set, BYU led 16-12 in Set 3. The Cougars had a 6-0 run that included two kills from Gneiting. Gneiting ended the match with a solo block that made it 25-18 and gave the Cougars the sweep.

Hifo had another ace in the final set. She racked up four total in the match.

Next up for the Cougars are WCC home matches on Thursday and Saturday against Portland and Gonzaga, respectively. Both matches will be available to view at BYUtv.org and also on the BYU App. Saturday’s match will be available on BYUtv.

UVU women’s soccer turns away Dixie State

Utah Valley overcame an early deficit to come back and defeat in-state foe Dixie State 3-2 in the Old Hammer Rivalry on Saturday night at Clyde Field.

Utah Valley improves to 7-4-1 overall on the season and remains unbeaten in WAC play with a 2-0-1 record. Dixie State falls to 4-9-0 overall and 0-3-0 in league play.

“I thought Dixie came out and had a lot of energy and punched us in the face at the beginning of the game,” said head coach Chris Lemay. “I thought we reacted pretty well. We had possession of the ball for most of the first half, created some chances and found an equalizer. The first 25 minutes of the second half, we began playing at our tempo and scored two really good goals. Unfortunately, we became a little undisciplined in the last 15 minutes and all of a sudden it turned into a game again and then we had to scramble to secure the three points. At the end of the day, we didn’t play our best soccer and still got the result that we needed.”

Dixie State took an early 1-0 lead in the seventh minute after McKinley Barney sent a corner kick into the box from the left side. Jill Bennett then fired a shot with her left foot into the back of the net to give the Trailblazers a 1-0 lead.

The Wolverines scored the equalizer in the 13th minute after Sadie Brockbank took the ball towards the end line on the right side and sent a cross into the box. Julianna Carter got a foot on the ball and sent it over the goal line near the far post for the score to tie the game 1-1. The goal is the first of the season for Carter and the 13th of her career.

Utah Valley took the lead in the 54th minute after a ball got sent into the box to Carter. Carter settled the ball and passed it over to Stainbrook in the middle of the box. Stainbrook fired the ball out of the reach of the DSU keeper to give the Wolverines a 2-1 lead.

UVU’s Nicole Olanda sent a ball to Breanna DeWaal on the left side of the field in the 66th minute. DeWaal then dribbled the ball down the left side of the field and sent a cross with her left foot into the middle of the box. Brockbank then sent the ball with her right foot past the keeper and into the net to extend UVU’s lead to a 3-1 advantage.

Dixie State’s Brynlee Roberts headed in a ball in the 84th minute to cut the UVU lead to a 3-2 advantage.

Utah Valley outshot Dixie State 20-4 on the night, including a 10-2 advantage on frame. Brockbank led UVU with a match-high seven shots, including three on goal. Stainbrook had four shots, all of which were on frame.

Utah Valley now heads out on the road for a pair of WAC matches at California Baptist and Seattle U on Oct. 8 and 10, respectively. UVU’s next home match will be on Oct. 21 against Seattle U.

UVU women’s volleyball picks up first WAC win

CHICAGO, Ill. – Utah Valley knocked off conference foe, Chicago State, 3-1 (25-18, 23-25, 25-19, 25-17) on the road on Saturday. With the win, the Wolverines improve to 6-8 on the season, including 1-2 in WAC play. The Cougars fall to 9-6 on the year and 1-2 in conference play.

Chicago State got out to an early 4-2 lead before Utah Valley used a 5-1 run to retake the lead, 7-5. Both teams went back and forth until Sadie Hamson and Kazna Tanuvasa led a 10-2 surge to go up, 21-13. UVU coasted to the win in the set, 25-18, to go up 1-0 in the match.

Tanuvasa led the Wolverines with 18 kills to go along with 12 digs and a career-high four aces. Fink added 10 kills and three blocks and Bell had a team-high 18 digs to go along with nine kills. Kalea Kennedy finished with six kills and a season-high five blocks and Kendra Nock had a team-high seven blocks. Abbie Miller led UVU with 26 assists and nine digs while Natalie Palmer chipped in 16 assists and nine digs. Bryton Bishop added 12 digs, six assists, and an ace.

The Wolverines continues on the road as UVU heads to Seattle U to take on the Redhawks on Oct. 7. UVU will take on California Baptist on Oct. 9 before heading to Dixie State on Oct. 14 before hosting the Trailblazers at home on Oct. 16.

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