How sweet it is: BYU advances to NCAA 3rd round on penalties over Stanford

PROVO — In a lengthy meeting of historic regional rival soccer programs, 90 minutes wasn't enough to decide the NCAA women's soccer second-round matchup between No. 14 BYU and sixth-ranked Stanford.

Neither were 110 minutes.

After a 1-1 tie through two extra periods, it all came down to penalty kicks, a spot that should feel familiar to the Cougars after last season's run to their first-ever national championship match.

BYU might be liking these penalty kicks, after Ellie Maughan converted the match-winning kick on the fifth round of a shootout to advance to the third round of the NCAA women's soccer tournament 5-4 Thursday afternoon for the eighth time in program history in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

The win snapped the Cougars' five-match losing skid to the Cardinal (17-2-3).

"They've knocked us out, but I think we beat them one time at South Field. A lot of alumni take pride in that," BYU coach Jennifer Rockwood told BYU Radio. "Stanford has unbelievable players, and we've drawn them quite a bit in the NCAA tournament. So it feels good to get a win.

"PKs are a tough way to end a game, but Stanford had a great year, won the Pac-12, and we feel fortunate to move forward."

The Cougars (11-2-7) made a goalkeeper change before the shootout, swapping out seven would-be goal saver Savanna Mason for Taygan Sill, and the 5-foot-8 freshman from Davis High made it count with the only save of the penalty shootout to set up Maughan's winner that sent shockwaves more than 2,100 miles away.

Prior to replacing Mason, Sill — who had played in just four games during the regular season with two goals allowed — had sat on the bench through the entire match, in addition to the Cougars' 3-0 win over crosstown rival Utah Valley in the opening round. But after a brief warmup, she did everything necessary to send her team to back-to-back Round of 16 appearances for the first time in program history.

"Taygan is a great shot blocker; my heart goes out to her," Maughan said. "She's a freshman, and she really stepped up to the plate. There isn't much more that you can ask her to do than that. She blocked a shot, and it was exactly what we needed to go to the next round."

Sill knew the change was coming, Rockwood admitted after the match, but she was ready.

"Taygan is phenomenal," Rockwood said. "She's been a really good goalkeeper, even while we haven't had a chance to get her in as much as we wanted. As we started taking PKs toward the end of the season, we felt like she did a really good job reading PKs. We felt like that was her specialty right now, and she knew coming in that we might use her. Then the girls just put them away.

"We've been practicing those PKs, and have some really good experience from the last couple of years with our group," the head coach added. "They stepped up, and got the job done."

Brecken Mozingo, Olivia Wade, Olivia Smith and Laveni Vaka each converted from the spot, setting up Maughan's attempt after Sill's only save of the shootout. The junior from Weber High didn't look back, laying down the ball tipped ever so slightly to her left and pushing the worm burner across the goal line inside the left post to send the Cougars onward.

Abby Gruebel, Maya Doms, Julia Leontini and Jasmine Aikey each converted a penalty for the Cardinal.

BYU struck first in the fourth minute. Wade buried an unassisted blast into the back of the net on the Cougars' first shot on goal of the match. The former Davis High standout took the ball away from a deflected pass off the Stanford wing, drifted centrally, and uncorked a shot from 25 yards out that caromed off the bottom left corner past Stanford goalkeeper Ryan Campbell to give the Cougars the early advantage.

Samantha Williams nearly equalized seven minutes later, but the crossbar kept her attempt from striking gold as the Cardinal out-shot BYU 6-1 in the opening minutes of the match played at Dorrance Field on the campus of the University of North Carolina.

That kind of pressure didn't hold out for long.

Aikey scored her fifth goal of the NCAA Tournament, finishing off a through ball from Dom in the 22nd minute to equalize, 1-1.

In the ninth all-time meeting between the two schools, including Stanford's 5-1 win in an NCAA quarterfinal in 2019 that was the fifth postseason meeting all-time, two of the top teams in the country in shots per game put on an offensive clinic in the early minutes. The Cardinal out-shot the Cougars 16-7 in the first half, but put just five shots on target to BYU's four.

Rachel McCarthy nearly gave BYU the go-ahead goal, beating the defense in the 59th minute and attempting to head her shot over Campbell. But the attempt trickled off the upper right post to stay deadlocked at a goal apiece. Second-half substitute Zoe Jacobs ripped a 20-yard bomb at the goal in the 84th minute, but Campbell was up to the challenge, tipping the attempt over the crossbar to keep the tie with six minutes remaining.

Stanford had two chances off corner kicks to win the match in the final 30 seconds of regulation, but Sierra Enge's shot was tipped wide and Avani Brandt's last-ditch effort was easily corralled by Mason to force extra time.

"It wasn't our best performance overall; we struggled a bit against a really good team," Rockwood said. "But we were just a little off, and gave the ball away a lot. That led to some good counter opportunities for Stanford, but soccer's a tricky shot. We've been on both sides.

"We just kept battling, got a lot of good play from different players who stepped up in a big game, and sometimes the biggest step is overcoming the name with the national prominence that Stanford has."

Through 45 shots, 16 shots on goal, and 16 corner kicks, neither team could find a winner in 90 minutes of regulation. That set up two 10-minute extra-time periods, with neither being decided by a golden goal due to an NCAA rule change implemented this year.

The Cougars advanced to face third-seeded North Carolina at 9:30 a.m. MST Saturday morning. The host Tar Heels, who beat Georgia 3-1 in the other Chapel Hill regional semifinal, defeated BYU 2-0 in an exhibition match at home back on Aug. 13.

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