TCU women’s soccer started in 1986. The program has a chance to make history Friday.
The TCU women’s soccer team is playing for the Big 12 regular-season championship on Friday night.
The Horned Frogs (7-0-1) would be champions with a win or a tie against West Virginia (7-1-0). The match is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. at Garvey-Rosenthal Soccer Stadium. The game will be televised on Big 12 Now on ESPN+. TCU is ranked No. 3 in the United Soccer Coaches Top 15 poll, while WVU is No. 4.
TCU has never won a conference championship since the soccer program started play in 1986. The best conference finish has been a tie for second for the Conference USA title in 2003. Since joining the Big 12 in 2012, the Frogs have finished third twice (2017, 2018).
“West Virginia is a very good team, so we definitely have our work cut out for us,” said TCU coach Eric Bell, who is in his ninth season. “We are excited. … It would be the icing on the cake to be able to win our first championship under these adverse conditions [amid the coronavirus pandemic].”
Bell met with the media this week to discuss the team and chasing the program’s first conference championship.
On if this feels like a NCAA Tournament-type game after fall sports championships were canceled: “The more that we’ve won the games, the more and more it feels like the NCAA Tournament. If you lose, it hurts your chance to win the conference. These last few games have felt like NCAA Tournament games where you kind of survive and advance. We’ve done well in that regard and hopefully we put ourselves in a good position to be successful on Friday night.”
On the reason for this year’s success: “Talent. You have to be talented enough to do the things that we are doing. We’re blessed to have very good players on our team all over the place. Experience, only started one freshman, having players on the field who have gone through all kinds of situations. They have experience playing in different types of conditions, venues, weather conditions. The most important thing is our culture, dealing with COVID, injuries, suspensions ... all these things that we’ve dealt with. Our culture has proven that we are on the right track in what we do.”
On goalkeeper Emily Alvarado, who has six shutouts this season: “You know she’s going to probably come up with one or two big-time saves in the game. In the bigger games, that keeps you in it. She’s done that over the course of the season. She’s a big talent — she’s athletic, she can fly around and make big-time saves. But her biggest jump this season has been her communication and leadership in the back. Being able to organize and make sure things that typically would happen don’t happen because she’s able to communicate things before they happen. That’s a huge thing for us.”
On forwards Messiah Bright and Grace Collins: “[Bright] is a big weapon that we have. She and Grace Collins have had very good seasons. … [Collins] has scored big-time goals just out of effort. I’m proud of the jump and strides she’s made from season one to season two.”
On West Virginia’s soccer history (the Mountaineers won five straight Big 12 regular-season championships from 2012-16): “Coming into the league in 2012, I thought West Virginia was head and shoulders above the rest. As a program, we looked at it as, ‘All right. We’ve got our work cut out for us to get to that level.’ Slowly but surely we’ve inched our way to becoming better each year. We look at our group right now and it’s going to be a very competitive game. I’m looking forward to that. I’m sure our kids are as well.
“Having West Virginia in our league has elevated the play of our league. Our conference can prepare a bunch of groups to advance to the NCAA Tournament and make big runs in the tournament as well.”
