By james art The wounds from Friday night’s 2-1 loss to BYU were still fresh when Ashley Williams had seen enough.
The Texas Tech soccer student herself had a lot of emotions, but she decided to channel them into something productive. Seeing the tears of sophomore Taylor Zdrojewski and junior Molly Skurchenski, Williams gave an impassioned speech.
Losing the game was hard enough. Seeing Texas Tech’s 27-game conference unbeaten streak come to an end was no better. And fall short of the Big 12 Conference regular season champions? It’s not much fun either.
But Williams knew sulking wouldn’t help. She continued her speech in the dressing room.
“Ashley was one of those who spoke up,” coach Tom Stone said, “and she said, look, I’m a senior. No one smells more than adults. But we have to come in tomorrow and go back to work.”
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At stake Friday night was the conference title, which Texas Tech could claim at least a share of with a win over the Cougars or a tie paired with a tie between TCU and Oklahoma State in Stillwater. The Horned Frogs were going about their business though, so the pressure was on the Red Raiders to get the job done.
Texas Tech led 1-0 at the break thanks to Zdrojewski’s header off a pass from Macy Blackburn in the 41st minute of play. The Red Raiders dominated possession for the first 45 minutes. Things took a turn from the half.
BYU took advantage of a weak front line and the Red Raiders were called for seven fouls to the Cougars’ zero in the second half. Stone said those fouls played a role in the momentum shifting BYU’s way.
“They certainly went down all the times (BYU) had to restart the game for free,” Stone said. “Every time the referee blew the whistle, we were going backwards and they were pushing. So they definitely gathered a lot of energy there. Whether you want to challenge the calls or not — I’m not in a position to do that — but the calls themselves gave BYU energy and they fed off of it and that’s what the second half looked like.”
A series of unlikely scenarios also played a role. The Red Raiders had numerous opportunities to score with several shots hitting the post.
After Skurchenski was booked, BYU’s Mackenzie Vance put the ball into the right corner of the net to tie the score in the 52nd minute. Stone said the bench knew TCU was on its way to a win, so the Red Raiders did everything they could to get back in front.
“I can’t remember a game where we hit the post, the post twice and the other team cleared it off the line and we didn’t win,” Stone said. “Some unreal bad luck here.”
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Avery Frischknecht kept the Red Raiders from saving the tie by scoring the game-winner with 37 seconds left.
With the loss, Texas Tech will settle for second place in the conference standings heading into next week’s Big 12 tournament in Kansas City. Stone and several other seniors delivered the same postgame message that Williams began minutes into the contest.
“It hurts,” Stone said. “What we’ll take with us to Kansas City is a sense of disappointment that we had a chance to win a trophy and let it slip away. This is going to be kind of the emotional part of it all.
“What are we going to do? What will our answer be? Are we going to cry all the way to Kansas City? We’ll come back tomorrow and get back to work, which I think it will be.”