TCU women’s soccer made history last season. Now they want an even deeper run in NCAAs
The TCU women’s soccer team made history last season, winning the program’s first NCAA Tournament game.
The Horned Frogs (11-7-3) are returning to the NCAA Tournament for the fourth consecutive time this year and will be looking to build upon what they did last season.
“The process is the process,” TCU coach Eric Bell said. “It’s good and bad. I think with having the experience of being successful in the tournament and winning a game finally, the players that are returning knows what that feels like.
“Hopefully we can create that feeling and make sure our effort is commendable to being successful and giving ourselves the best shot to be successful.”
TCU faces Arizona in a first-round matchup Saturday night at Mulcahy Stadium in Tucson, Arizona. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.
If TCU wins, it’ll face the winner of Penn State and Stony Brook in the second round on Nov. 22.
The Frogs enter the tournament feeling good, reaching the Big 12 championship game earlier this month. They had a 1-0 loss to Kansas in the championship, but had an impressive 2-1 victory over No. 13 Texas Tech in the semifinals.
Arizona is a familiar opponent for TCU. The Frogs and Wildcats met in a non-conference match on Sept. 21 with the Wildcats winning 4-3. And these two met in the 2017 tournament with Arizona winning 2-1.
“We did come back to give them a really good game and scored two goals in 10 minutes,” Bell said of this year’s early-season match. “We’ll see if we can rectify the score.”
Bell likes the attacking players TCU brings into the tournament.
Sophomore forward Messiah Bright has a team-leading 30 points (12 goals, six assists), junior midfielder Yazmeen Ryan has 23 points (seven goals, nine assists) and freshman midfielder Gracie Brian has 22 points (nine goals, four assists).
On the other side, Bell likes how they play overall team defense.
Time will tell whether it’s good enough to make a deep run this time around.
“I think you are who you are as far as when you get into the tournament,” Bell said. “You basically are trying to put your best foot forward and you really can’t change your identity at that point in time. You are who you are and basically roll the balls out.”
This story was originally published November 15, 2019 at 2:08 PM.
