Baylor Soccer closed out its five-game spring slate last Friday, so here is the latest from the Bears of Betty Lou.
After starting the spring with wins over Navarro College, UTSA and TCU, Baylor Soccer dropped a neutral-site game to Oklahoma 2-1 two weekends ago and lost 4-1 to SMU on Friday night.
Both games were moved up a day due to weather, and the Bears were without starting goalkeeper Azul Alvarez and midfielder Noelle Sather, but there were deeper lessons that the team has to learn from those games.
“The score line looks a little out of line with the game,” said Baylor head coach Michelle Lenard after the SMU game. “I mean, I didn't think we deserved to win today, but I don't think 4-1 is a is an accurate portrayal of how the game was going. It kind of got bad at the end as we started taking risks trying to get back in it. We got opened up in a couple of transition moments and turnovers in our build.”
Looking back at both the SMU and OU losses, Coach Lenard went on to say, “We just lacked consistency, and that was the same in the last game [OU] as well. We lacked consistency in key moments. I think the things we were concerned about with a young back line got exposed in the last two games. And so as much as I hate it, and it's painful for everybody, these are the things we have to have happen so we can learn and get better… the hard lessons are usually the best ones, and that's what we're gonna have to build off of now.”
The Oklahoma game was decidedly closer than the SMU game, with the former conference foes tied heading into the last few minutes.
“We lost like in the last 90 seconds on a counterattack from a chaotic goal kick situation,” said Coach Lenard on the Oklahoma game. “That was poor game management from us. We were aggressive. We wanted to go and score. We took too much risk. It was a different, you know, different level of disappointment, because it didn't have to happen. And we were, I think, a little overaggressive to want to score.”
These outcomes are an interesting contrast to the first three games of the spring, where the Bears rolled through Navarro College and UTSA before an exhilarating 4-3 win over TCU. Michelle Lenard has been open about the areas of weakness she sees in her team, so a perfect record was not expected even after the big win against the Frogs. Despite the need to learn, which typically necessitates mistakes, and the fact that the spring is the best time for those mistakes and lessons, the Bears’ head coach was as displeased after the loss to SMU as she has been after most regular-season losses during her tenure.
“It was really kind of like two springs. We felt great for the first three games, and then we didn't play well for the last two, and it's pretty disappointing to end the spring that way. But you know, we dialed up the competition throughout. We moved both of these last two games up a day, so maybe we got some of the load management wrong. I don't know. We'll have to go back and look at that… you can't be emotional about it. We had some really, really good moments in the spring, really positive moments in the last two games. We got exposed to some ways. So I think we’ve got to take both. We’ve got to build off of both. I don't feel worried that we're not going to be able to score goals next year. You know, we got exposed defensively. We got exposed in our build-out against a high-pressure offense or high press. And so we’ve got to continue to get better at that.”
As for the film from the five spring games: “Take it, look at it, learn, make some hard decisions about who can do it and maybe who can’t, and make sure we bring in some players in some key positions that we need some support in, which we're about to do.”
Looking at the roster at the end of the spring, there are three groups to keep in mind: the players the team was missing at the end of the exhibition schedule, the players that stood out through the spring, and then the holes in the squad that need to be addressed.
The missing players, as touched on earlier, include starting goalkeeper Azul Alvarez and new transfer midfielder Noelle Sather. Alvarez has been away at the Mexican U23 National Team camp. Sather, a sophomore midfielder who came to Baylor from USF, has been sidelined with an injury (not long-term). Coach Lenard noted the impact this had on the team, given Sather’s skill at playing out against presses.
The Bears are also without one member of their 2025 high school recruiting class: Brynnlee Bohannon. The midfielder from Aubrey, Texas, was noted as another player with the potential to help the Bears in the areas they struggled against Oklahoma and SMU.
Staying with the “players the Bears did not have for these games” line of thought, there will be more transfers brought in before the season starts in August. With the spring roster sitting at 27 players and Bohannon making 28, any transfers in would mean equal attrition from the current roster. The roster is capped by the NCAA at 28 players.
Coach Lenard is probably looking to bring in three summer transfers. Since she never likes to lack attacking options, one will likely be a forward. Someone to compete with or backup Callie Conrad at center forward would make sense with Baylor not having a like-for-like substitute option at that spot last season.
As for the other two potential transfers, I have to imagine those would be geared towards strengthening the defense. With Natalie Vatter locked in at one outside back spot and Emerson Garcia likely to lock down one of the starting center back spots, one transfer in each of those positions would make sense to strengthen the squad and give the staff options. With plenty of more attack-leaning options on the roster who could play minutes at outside back, it would make sense that if a player is brought in primarily to try to fill the outside back role, they would also be a more defense-oriented player who could get work at center back as well. That is all speculation on my part, though.
Back to players on the Bears roster, and especially ones that were on the field during the spring, Coach Lenard highlighted a handful of players that stood out to her this spring.
First, freshman goalkeeper Sierra Gallant was given praise for performing well in tough spots over the last two spring exhibitions. She shared time with the other keepers on the roster in Alvarez’s absence, but she did enough to stand out.
Next, Duke transfer midfielder Taylor Evans. The Bears' hopeful replacement for Kai Hayes had a good spring and found consistency in her new team. A great foundation for anyone taking on a key midfield role.
Freshman forward Grace White, who wowed through the first half of spring, came back down to earth a bit as the Bears’ results started going the other way, but there does not seem to be any cause for concern.
“Grace had a great spring. Today caught up with her a little bit. She's getting manhandled a little bit, you know, a freshman learning the hard way, the physicality. But she's strong, and she's a very coachable kid, so she'll get there.”
Not a big wake-up call, just another couple of reference points for what competition will be like in the fall, that is how I read this for White.
And finally, the player earning the most praise from the head coach — perhaps not coincidentally the player that stayed on the field long after the SMU exhibition was over to talk things over with her coaches — was midfielder Olivia Hess. The freshman started all 23 games last season for the Bears and is looking primed to match that while increasing her effectiveness in her sophomore season.
“Liv has been great. Liv has been consistent. Liv covers so much ground. I mean, Olivia is definitely the engine in our midfield and pulls all the strings and has got the work ethic,” said Coach Lenard, “She's got all the pieces. So really happy with her progress from the fall. She had a great fall. We asked her to be stronger and more physical, and we asked her to win more duels, and she's doing both of those things super well. So we’re really excited for her future.”
