PROVO — Brianna Hatch wasn't always a soccer player.

When she was a little girl, her parents put her into dance classes, and she excelled at the finer points of her youth classes and rehearsals.

Then she showed up to a soccer game featuring her older sister Ashley, and — still wearing her dance gear — she knew that's what she wanted to do. She asked her mom why she couldn't play what her sister was playing, and her parents eventually acquiesced and put her on her first club soccer team.

"I was like, wait, what am I doing in dance? That (soccer) looks way more fun," Brianna Hatch said. "I pretty much wanted to do everything she was doing."

The rest, as they say, was history.

The Hatch sisters will lead the Cougars against Arizona in an exhibition match Saturday at South Field. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m., and will feature many of the same opponents the Arizona natives played with and against on the club circuit.

Since Ashley was 14 and Brianna was 12, the two played on the same soccer team — clubs in California and their native Arizona, and Highland High School in Gilbert, Arizona.

The only two years they didn't play together was when Ashley first arrived at BYU. But Bri Hatch made quick work of that in committing to coach Jennifer Rockwood and the Cougars early in her junior year shortly after her sister had stepped on campus.

Now they're together again, with older sister Ashley paving the road as the Cougars' leading scorer and a Hermann Trophy candidate.

"It's unreal. It really is a dream," Ashley Hatch said. "All growing up, we've pushed each other and practiced against each other. But it's always been a goal to play here together. So this is really fun. It's a dream come true."

The hyper-competitive sisters played together in school, then practiced together one-on-one with their father Barry — sometimes underneath a generator-powered light in the middle of the night to avoid Arizona's 110-degree weather. The two were so competitive with each other that Barry Hatch remembers having to pry the sisters apart so they could hug it out and be cordial in time for family dinner.

"They are both extremely, uber-competitive. But they are each other's biggest fans at the same time," Barry Hatch said. "If Ashley scored a hat trick, Brianna was happier than Ashley for her — and the next time she'd secretly want to outdo her.

Brianna Hatch admitted to competing with her sister, even if it wasn't always public. The 5-foot-8 midfielder would often find herself trying to outscore her older sister, a 5-9 forward and natural goal-scorer who had 18 goals and six assists as a sophomore for the Cougars.

"She can have two or three people on her, and she'll still get the shot off and score most of the time," Brianna Hatch said of big sister. "Ash is a really good goal-scorer."

Not to be outdone, Ashley Hatch has been inspired by her younger sister's technical ability and possession game, which she demonstrated at Tuesday's blue-and-white scrimmage.

"Bri is really strong on the ball. She can hold anyone off the ball," said Ashley Hatch, who ranks 12th in BYU's all-time history with 24 goals and 13 assists. "She's also a smart player and can find those passes no one else can find. She's really good at reading the game. When she finds her shot, she takes really hard shots."

The sisters teamed up to lead Highland to an Arizona state championship in 2012, Ashley Hatch's senior year. After she went off to college, Brianna Hatch then added a state title in 2015 with Highland, and she captured Arizona Division I all-state honors all four years.

Ashley Hatch still holds the Highland High record for goals in a career, but Brianna has the most recent accomplishments, taking home her team's offensive MVP award last season and being named Arizona's Gatorade player of the year. She also holds the Highland track-and-field 1,600-meter relay record.

Related:

BYU's Hatch named to Hermann Trophy watch list

BYU forward Ashley Hatch was one of 28 women's soccer players named to the Hermann Trophy watch list by the Missouri Athletic Club. The award, presented annually to the best male and female college soccer players in the nation, had 13 NSCAA All-Americans on the list, including Hatch.

"Every year, I'd try to beat whatever she got (in high school)," Brianna Hatch said with a laugh. "It's a big rivalry between both of us in everything we do. But it makes us so much better."

Now that both are in Provo, Ashley Hatch can also pull seniority off the field. She admits to playing the big sister card "a little bit."

"Making sure she goes to bed on time," she added. "I'm super protective, and anyone who looks at her wrong at those games, they'd better watch out. But it's super fun having her here."

The sisters have two years to accomplish their team goals at BYU, including advancing past the first round of the NCAA Tournament — something Ashley Hatch has yet to do in her already storied career.

But the siblings can already check one accomplishment off their list — making their parents proud.

"I couldn't be more proud of them," Barry Hatch said. "They've worked hard and sacrificed a lot of parties and dances growing up.

"To play at BYU, I couldn't be more proud. And to have them both play together, it's a dream as a father to watch them play and excel."

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