PROVO, Utah — BYU women's soccer head coach Jennifer Rockwood has announced the team's 2022 fall schedule, with 10 home games, 10 non-conference games and nine West Coast Conference matchups.
Full BYU women's soccer 2022 schedule
"We are really looking forward to this year's fall schedule," Rockwood said. "We'll be facing some big, competitive opponents, and that starts as soon as our exhibition game in August. We are especially excited about that because we'll be facing North Carolina, and this program has never played there before. Obviously, North Carolina is an elite soccer program. Even though it's just exhibition, the opportunity to play them will give us a great point of reference early on in the season."
In the preseason, BYU will start things off with a Blue vs. White scrimmage on Saturday, Aug. 6 and an Alumni Game on Wednesday, Aug. 10. Then on Aug. 13, BYU travels to Chapel Hill to face North Carolina in an exhibition match.
BYU's first home game of the regular season will be held on Monday, Aug. 29 against Colorado. The Cougars played Colorado earlier this spring, in April, and won 3-2, with goals by Ruby Hladek (2) and Kendell Petersen. BYU will also host Alabama, Cal State Northridge, Arkansas, Utah Valley and Utah in non-conference play.
"Coming off of our great season last year, we want our non-conference competition to set us up nicely for conference play," Rockwood said. "Especially with it being the last season to compete and play in the WCC, we look forward to facing many worthy opponents on South Field in 2022."
The Cougars will open WCC play on Oct. 1 at Saint Mary's. They will host their final regular season home game in a much-anticipated matchup against Santa Clara on Oct. 29 at South Field, before finishing up the regular season at LMU and San Diego. As the defending WCC co-champions, BYU is looking to win its ninth league title in its final year with the conference, as BYU joins the Big 12 Conference in 2023. Three teams from the WCC last year made it to the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Tournament: BYU, Santa Clara and Pepperdine.
Season tickets will be available for purchase for all 2022 women's soccer home games on byutickets.com starting July 5 for Cougar Club members and previous season ticket holders, who will be sent an email with information on their renewal slot. For more information about season tickets, fill out this form on BYU Ticket's website. Tickets will be opened to the general public on July 6 at 10 a.m. MDT on byutickets.com.
BYU added eight new players to its roster in 2022, including seven freshmen (Erin Bailey, Avery Frischknecht, Taygan Sill, Sierra Pennock, Izzi Stratton, Allie Fryer and Emma Neff), who were added since January. These seven freshmen all competed in BYU's 2022 spring season, where BYU had an undefeated 9-0-1 record. Freshman Camryn Jorgensen will be officially added this summer. The Cougars return 16 players as well, including 2021 United Soccer Coaches All-West Region players Laveni Vaka and Jamie Shepherd.
The NCAA Women's Soccer Tournament selection show will be Nov. 6, with the first and second rounds beginning on Nov. 10 and 12, respectively. The NCAA Women's College Cup is set for Dec. 2-4 in North Carolina at the WakeMed Soccer Park.
Last season, BYU made history as the 2021 national runner-up, appearing in the College Cup for the first time after a West Coast Conference championship, 17-win season and multiple national awards for players and coaches. Rockwood and her staff were named the 2021 National Staff of the Year by the United Soccer Coaches Association. Finishing with a record of 17-5-2, the Cougars ended their season as No. 2 in the United Soccer Coaches poll. BYU had a season-long dominant offense, earning the No. 1 spot in multiple categories by scoring 77 total goals and averaging 3.50 goals per game. The Cougars' goalkeepers and backline also racked up 10 shutouts and a 0.682 goals-against average.