Stanford scores early to hold off BYU 2-0 in College Cup semifinal

PROVO —The top scoring offense in NCAA women's soccer met an immovable object it couldn't overcome Friday night.

Allie Montoya scored in the second minute, and No. 3-ranked Stanford did all its scoring in the opening minutes of the match before holding on for a 2-0 win over No. 6 BYU at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina.

The Cougars outshot the Cardinal 20-3 on the match, but Stanford (20-0-4) converted two of its three shots on goal to advance to Monday's national title match against another No. 1 seed in Florida State.

"It was definitely a hard loss, and hard to walk off the field," said BYU senior Jamie Shepherd, who ends her career the program leader in appearances with 108. "But I'm beyond proud of this team and everyone on the field; you could see, we gave it our all. We just wanted to walk off the field knowing that we gave it everything and left with no regrets. It's hard to lose, but we're super proud of this team."

BYU senior Brecken Mozingo, a MAC Hermann Trophy semifinalist and first-team All-American, led the Cougars with six shots, and Olivia Wade-Katoa and Allie Fryer each added three shots.

Much like in last week's 4-3 win over North Carolina in an NCAA quarterfinal, BYU (20-3-3) fell behind early. Montoya finished off a ball from Jasmine Ailey in the second minute to give the Cardinal a 1-0 advantage, and Maya Doms doubled the advantage with a 25-yard strike just before the fifth minute to go up 2-0.

Ellie Walbruch nearly pulled one back in the 42nd minute, finishing off a through-ball from fellow sub Erin Bailey. But the UCLA transfer was adjudged to be offside by a kneecap as Stanford took a 2-0 lead into halftime with a 9-2 deficit.

The Cardinal converted their only two shot attempt of the first 45 minutes, requiring goalkeeper Ryan Campbell to not make a save en route to the first-half shutout.

The top-seeded Cougars pressed for an advantage to start the second half, including back-to-back attempts by Mozingo that ended with a shot winding high over the crossbar in the 68th minute.

But Campbell and the nation's top-rated defense held the shutout to send the three-time champion Cardinal to its sixth national championship appearance in program history with a 36-match unbeaten streak.

The match ends arguably the best run for a senior class in BYU women's soccer history, where 10 of the 11 graduating players that played in two College Cup semifinals — the only two in Jennifer Rockwood's 29 seasons leading the program from its NCAA inception — in addition to a national championship berth in 2021 and several unbelievable memories along the way.

"I guess they aren't so young any more," said Rockwood, eliciting laughter from Shepherd and Wade-Katoa next to her.

But for many of them, especially a roster where more than two-thirds of the talent hails from Utah, playing for BYU has always been a dream. Rockwood recalled one of the first times she met then-Olivia Wade, when an 11-year-old version of the U.S. youth international approached her at a Utah state cup tournament and said, "Coach, I'm going to play for you someday."

"I've known a lot of these girls since they were 12 years old," the veteran coach added. "This group is really special, because they've been through a lot. ... This group wanted to do something that no BYU team has ever done, and that was win a national championship. But I think we can hold our heads high."

Wade-Katoa can only hope there are more of those talented youngsters to come, she added.

"Ever since we were little girls, it was a dream to come to BYU and it's been super special to see the majority of our team come from Utah and the talent coming out of our state in recent years," the former Davis High standout said. "It's been something really special that we've been able to witness. I'm grateful that we were able to leave BYU a little bit better than we found it, and hopefully we inspired the next generation of Cougars to keep it rolling."

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