How player-run leadership led BYU women's soccer on one more College Cup run

PROVO — BYU midfielder Jamie Shepherd had a candid response when asked what went on during a locker room meeting involving the Cougars' senior class, free of coaches or administrators, after trailing North Carolina 3-0 in an NCAA quarterfinal last Friday.

It's not that the holding midfielder and program leader in appearances had some wise counsel or fiery motivational speech to overturn a seemingly insurmountable deficit against arguably the top program in collegiate women's soccer (but more on that in a moment).

Shepherd was just cold as snow built up on South Field in the sub-40 degree weather in front of a sold-out stadium in South Field.

"There was about five minutes left, and I wasn't about to go back outside; it was freezing," the American Fork native said, smiling. "I was going to warm up, that was part of it."

Of course, there were other reasons, because after head coach Jennifer Rockwood and her assistants had spoken with the team, made a few small adjustments, and tried to figure out a way to come back from 3-down against one of the best teams in NCAA college soccer history, Shepherd and the 11 other seniors on the roster — including nine who had played with one another for 4-5 years — put their plan together.

You know the ending here: Brecken Mozingo worked her magic with a goal and an assist, Bella Folino scored twice, and Olivia Wade-Katoa notched the match-winner with less than two minutes remaining as the Cougars rallied by No. 3 North Carolina 4-3 to advance to the program's second NCAA College Cup semifinal in three years.

But it started, in many ways, with that halftime players' huddle.

"Gathering a lot of the girls, some of the seniors and leaders, it was good to sit down and regroup," Shepherd said. "I remember making eye contact with Liv Wade and just smiling at her, laughing it all off; that happened, it's over, and it's going to be just fine. You could feel that confidence and the want from the girls; we wanted to leave South Field knowing that we gave everything we had.

"That was the goal walking into the second half: leaving it all on the field. It was a group effort, and I think every one of us did exactly that. … We were just playing our game, and when we play our game, we're going to score goals."

Leadership has taken BYU to a lot of places it hasn't been before this year: a No. 1 national ranking, a Big 12 tournament championship game, and a runner-up finish in a Power Five conference for the first time in program history.

It's also taken them somewhere familiar: back to the NCAA College Cup, where the Cougars will face No. 2 Stanford in a semifinal Friday at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina (6:30 p.m. MST, ESPNU).

Led by Mozingo, the MAC Hermann Trophy semifinalist (one of 15, with senior teammate Laveni Vaka) who has a team-best 15 assists and is one of five players with double-digit goals (Erin Bailey, Allie Fryer, Ellie Walbruch and Wade-Katoa are the others), BYU now faces a familiar Stanford side that leads the all-time series 5-3-1.

But the Cougars have the most recent achievement, a penalty kick-assisted win int he second round of the NCAA Tournament last year when the Cougars advanced to the Round of 16.

There's plenty of tournament experience on a team that Rockwood describes as "best friends" for several years. But leadership has come through more than the 11 seniors who played their final game at South Field last week.

"I think it's one of the main reasons for our success," Rockwood said. "Once the game starts, as a coach you don't have much control over what is happening. We try to yell loud sometimes, but I know they can't hear us. You have to rely on your players on the field, and being able to make changes on the field. … It's something that maybe wasn't always in place last year, and caused us to fall a little bit short."

BYU's next step won't be easy. Nothing at this stage of any tournament is, right?

The Cougars are the highest scoring team in the country, a 79-goal in 25-matches output paced by a team rather than a singular star.

But the Cardinal rank second nationally in goals-against average, a .431 mark in 23 matches and just 10 goals conceded in 2,090 minutes. Sophomore midfielder Jasmine Aikey rates among the top 15 on the MAC Hermann Trophy semifinal list for a team that has won two of the last six national titles.

"We're a team that is capable of scoring a lot of goals," Folino said. "I think we just have to go out there and play our game, and the goals will come."

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