BYU women’s soccer: 2016 team has parallels to 2012 Elite Eight squad

BYU women’s soccer is off to a hot start for the season. Could they be poised for another deep postseason run? Comparing this squad to the 2012 Elite Eight team.

For BYU Women’s Soccer, excellence is not a new thing.

Anyone that was at South Field for their Elite Eight NCAA tournament run can tell you that. You won’t find a college soccer atmosphere that makes people spit out the word “electric” so easily, rise roaring and fist pumping so frequently that your seat becomes a cold, forgotten slab.

Those games had everything. Amazing saves, card-drawing fouls, last minute victories, and the smell of Cougar Tails that practically added a layer of fat to your love handles all on its own. One decisive victory over an in-state rival, two games ended by PKs, and one overtime match that was a soul-crushing slide tackle away from a trip to the Final Four.

Flash forward four years. The Cougars have stood atop the West Coast Conference as its perennial regular season champ, making South Field a graveyard of the hopes and dreams of WCC contenders. And yet that rarefied air of vying for national glory has eluded them.

Curiously, a lot of parallels have started to crop up between that Elite Eight team and 2016’s version.

The Cougars have stood atop the West Coast Conference as its perennial regular season champ, making South Field a graveyard of the hopes and dreams of WCC contenders.

Returning stars up front then: Carlee Payne Holmoe, Jessica Ringwood, and Lindsi Lisonbee Cutshall, aided by freshman Michele Murphy. Now: Ashley Hatch, Nadia Gomes, and Elena Medeiros, aided by a senior Michele Murphy Vasconcelos.

In 2012, a head scratching early loss 0-1 to mediocre opponent (Utah); in 2016, to Nebraska, in similar fashion.

Then: early marquee victory over top ten Penn State. Now: seminal program victory over defending national champ Penn State on their own pitch.

When smoke is billowing in the air, and fire trucks circle round with lights strobing, you don’t have to see the flames to guess there might be a fire.

After racking up a convincing home win 5-2 over Tennessee following their Penn State triumph, a game full of clean passing, scoring, and heat waves coming off of Ashley Hatch’s feet, the Cougars followed up with a solid 2-0 win at Ute Field to kick off rivalry week. Hatch currently leads the NCAA with an average of 1.6 goals per game.

There is clearly a fire burning for the Cougars in the young season. There’s a chance it might light the way back to No. 1 NCAA tournament seed, an electric home crowd that forgets about their seats, and perhaps deeper run than any BYU team before.

For BYU women’s soccer, excellence is not a new thing. But it sure never get’s old.