Texas Tech needed 46 seconds to put BYU in trouble. BYU needed the rest of the first half to turn that mistake into its best win of the season.
Mattyn Summers-Oviatt scored on both sides of halftime, Mia Goettsche supplied the first answer and No. 22 BYU beat No. 8 Texas Tech 3-2 Friday night at South Field. The Cougars erased an immediate deficit, scored three consecutive goals and protected the last one through a tense 20-minute finish.
The result gave Texas Tech its first loss after an 18-match unbeaten run. It also snapped a 56-match stretch in which the Red Raiders had not lost when scoring at least twice. BYU did not beat that history by owning every number. Texas Tech had a 14-13 edge in shots and put six on goal to BYU’s five. The Cougars won the match by making their best chances count, then putting bodies in front of the late shots that could have undone the work.
BYU improved to 9-3-2 overall and 5-1-1 in the Big 12. Texas Tech fell to 9-1-4 and 5-1-1. A first-place chase that looked ready to separate now has the teams level on conference points.
BYU-Texas Tech score and match receipt
| Match detail | BYU | Texas Tech |
|---|---|---|
| Final score | 3 | 2 |
| Halftime score | 2 | 1 |
| Shots | 13 | 14 |
| Shots on goal | 5 | 6 |
| Saves | 4 | 2 |
| Corner kicks | 5 | 4 |
| Fouls | 11 | 13 |
The five goals came in five distinct phases:
| Time | Team | Scorer | Assist(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0:46 | Texas Tech | Taylor Zdrojewski | Unassisted |
| 16:57 | BYU | Mia Goettsche | Emma Hamberlin, Mika Krommenhoek |
| 43:53 | BYU | Mattyn Summers-Oviatt | Sydney Snow, Presley Freeman |
| 56:24 | BYU | Mattyn Summers-Oviatt | Mika Krommenhoek |
| 70:02 | Texas Tech | Taylor Zdrojewski | Raleigh Greason |
Paiton Collins made four saves for BYU. Addie Todd made two for Texas Tech. Attendance was 3,329.
Those totals make this look like a balanced five-goal game. The sequence was sharper than that. Texas Tech landed the first blow, BYU controlled the middle hour, and the Red Raiders forced the Cougars to defend the result at the end.
The first minute could have ruined the plan
The pregame watch guide centered the match on Texas Tech’s ability to turn the first goal into control. The Red Raiders had trailed for less than 14 minutes all season and had spent years making one goal stand up.
Then BYU gave them one.
Zdrojewski pressured Collins less than a minute after kickoff, took the ball and finished into the lower-left corner. There was no elaborate buildup to diagnose. It was an individual mistake in the one part of the field where a mistake becomes a shot before the defense can help.
The danger was larger than 1-0. A team facing the Big 12’s best defense could have chased the equalizer too quickly, stretched its midfield and let Texas Tech run into the empty space. The Red Raiders nearly found a second as Zdrojewski remained active around the box.
BYU did not pretend the mistake had not happened. It also did not let the mistake choose the next 15 minutes.
The Cougars settled into possession, moved the ball toward the left side and forced Texas Tech to defend more than the first pass. That distinction mattered. Texas Tech entered with eight clean sheets and a 287-minute scoreless streak. Straight attacks into an organized back line were unlikely to change the night. BYU needed to move the defense first.
Goettsche’s equalizer came from the right kind of width
The tying goal began with Emma Hamberlin driving down the flank and creating a crossing angle. Her service traveled through the box to Goettsche at the far post. Goettsche finished with her right foot at 16:57.
It was BYU’s first goal against Texas Tech goalkeeper Todd in 287 minutes of Red Raider soccer. More useful than the streak, though, was how the Cougars broke it.
Todd did not get to stay square behind a shot from distance. The cross forced the entire defense to turn toward its own goal. Goettsche arrived on the weak side, where the last defender had to choose between the ball and the runner. Krommenhoek received the secondary assist because BYU connected the action rather than simply sending a hopeful ball into traffic.
The goal also changed the emotional math. Texas Tech’s 46-second lead no longer looked like permission to sit inside its preferred defensive shape. BYU had already made the Red Raiders chase one transition across goal.
That does not mean the next 27 minutes were easy. Texas Tech still generated pressure, and Collins had to make a save in the 15th minute before the equalizer. BYU’s response was convincing because it stayed attached to the plan: carry wide, make the back line turn, and bring a second runner to the far side.
Summers-Oviatt owned the two moments around halftime
Summers-Oviatt’s first goal arrived with 1:07 left in the half. That timing was as important as the finish.
Presley Freeman advanced on the left. Sydney Snow sent the ball across the face of goal, and Summers-Oviatt headed it into the right side at 43:53. BYU went from surviving the worst possible start to carrying a 2-1 lead into the locker room.
The goal was Snow’s first career assist. For Summers-Oviatt, it was the opening half of her first career brace.
BYU then avoided the familiar trap of treating halftime as a finish line. The Cougars produced three shots in the first six minutes after the break. Texas Tech answered with a dangerous chance from Kylie Bahr, and Collins pushed the far-post effort wide. The match was still asking for a third BYU goal.
Krommenhoek found Summers-Oviatt at 56:24. This time the senior slipped through the line and drove her finish past Todd into the right side. BYU led 3-1.
The two goals say something different together than they do separately. The header rewarded a runner attacking service in a crowded area. The second finish rewarded movement behind the line. Texas Tech could not solve both with the same adjustment. Protect the six-yard box too narrowly, and BYU could attack the channel. Step higher to close that channel, and the service behind the first defender became dangerous.
Summers-Oviatt finished two of BYU’s five shots on goal. On a night when Texas Tech allowed only five, converting both was the match.
Krommenhoek connected the attack without taking the final shot
Krommenhoek did not score, but her two assists joined the first and third goals. That is a fair picture of her influence.
She helped move the first attack before Hamberlin’s cross reached Goettsche. In the second half, she supplied Summers-Oviatt for the eventual winner. The Cougars needed a player who could connect one phase to the next without forcing every possession toward her own shot.
That was especially important against Texas Tech. The Red Raiders’ defenders had been part of their recent attack, and their shape was built to punish loose central passes. BYU could not afford a string of ambitious balls that turned into immediate counters. Krommenhoek’s value came in moving the defense, keeping the possession alive and choosing the moment when a forward run had actually opened.
Her first multi-assist match of the season came in the one matchup where BYU needed more than shot volume. Against West Virginia, nine shots on goal produced none. Against Cincinnati, one Bella Woods free kick was enough for a 1-0 win. Friday required three different scoring actions, and Krommenhoek had a hand in two.
The last 20 minutes belonged to the block
A 3-1 lead against an unbeaten top-10 team was never going to feel settled.
Texas Tech cut the margin at 70:02. Raleigh Greason’s initial effort created the second action, and Zdrojewski finished for her second goal. A review confirmed that the ball had crossed the line.
The final phase tested whether BYU could defend without disappearing. Dropping every player into the box would have invited Texas Tech to recycle attacks until one clean shot arrived. Chasing a fourth goal recklessly would have given the Red Raiders the transition they wanted.
BYU lived in the uncomfortable middle. The Cougars still sent Goettsche and Kyleigh Hastings forward enough to make Texas Tech defend, but the decisive moments came in their own box.
Kylie Bahr took a late shot from distance that deflected off a BYU defender before Collins collected it. Texas Tech earned a free kick just outside the area after a BYU handball in the 83rd minute. Eleanor Hays drove the shot toward goal, and Avery Frischknecht blocked it with her chest.
That block was the defensive version of Summers-Oviatt’s finishes. It happened before Collins needed another save and before a loose rebound could become the equalizer. The official box score gives BYU four goalkeeper saves. It does not fully capture the value of the shots the back line prevented from reaching her cleanly.
Texas Tech had eight second-half shots and three on target. The Red Raiders had enough pressure to make the finish serious, but they never created the sixth goal.
This win changes BYU’s ceiling more than its floor
BYU had already shown several ways to collect conference points. The Cougars scored three against UCF, shut out TCU, answered Kansas State after falling behind and won at Cincinnati through a restart and four saves.
Texas Tech asked for a higher version of all of it.
The Red Raiders arrived unbeaten, first in the Big 12 and allowing the fewest league goals. They scored in the first minute, then scored again after BYU built a two-goal lead. BYU still found enough attack to score three and enough defense to preserve the last margin.
It would be easy to turn that into a claim that every concern is solved. It is not. The opening goalkeeper error was severe. Texas Tech took more shots. A late handball gave Hays a dangerous free kick from the edge of the area. Against another strong team, any one of those moments can take points away.
The larger evidence is still real. BYU can concede first against an elite defense without losing its structure. It can score through a far-post finish, a header and a run behind the line. It can protect a one-goal lead after the opponent changes the emotional direction of the match.
That is more than a dramatic home win. It is a usable postseason profile.
What comes next
BYU goes back on the road to face Kansas on Thursday, Oct. 22 at 5 p.m. Mountain at Rock Chalk Park. ESPN+ and StatBroadcast are listed on the permanent women’s soccer schedule. The results archive carries the completed season, and the Cincinnati recap shows the one-goal road formula BYU will bring to Lawrence.
The standings pressure did not disappear Friday. BYU and Texas Tech are now level at 16 points through seven conference matches, with West Virginia and the rest of the top group still able to shape the race.
What changed is the proof BYU can carry into it. The Cougars gave the league leader a goal in the first minute, then took the match back one phase at a time. Goettsche broke the shutout run. Summers-Oviatt broke the game open. The back line refused to let Zdrojewski’s second goal break the result.
South Field got all five goals. BYU got the one that mattered.
Sources and further reading
- BYU Athletics: No. 22 BYU beats No. 8 Texas Tech 3-2 for the official scoring sequence, player milestones, late blocks, records and Kansas follow-up.
- BYU Athletics event 25212, official box score and women’s soccer schedule for the stable event ID, completed result, team totals, scoring times, attendance and permanent event path.
- Texas Tech Athletics: No. 8 Tech falls at No. 22 BYU and the Texas Tech box score for opponent-side confirmation of the final, 18-match unbeaten run, 56-match scoring-twice streak, late pressure and team statistics.
- Texas Tech Athletics Identity for the official scarlet
#C30020, black#000000and white palette used in the original matchup art. - BYU Sport Nuts: Texas Tech watch guide, Cincinnati recap, women’s soccer schedule and results.
