TicketsROUND ROCK, Texas— The University of Cincinnati women's soccer team scored a season-high three goals to defeat Baylor, 3-2, on Saturday in the first round of the 2023 Sprouts Framers Market Big 12 Championships inside the Round Rock Multipurpose Complex.
Cincinnati earned its fourth victory of the season and improved to 4-7-7 on the year, while Baylor ends its year with a record of 9-7-3. The Bearcats will now face the Big 12 Regular Season Champions, Texas Tech, in the tournament quarterfinals on Monday, kickoff is scheduled for 3 p.m. ET.
With the match all tied 2-2, graduate student Kendall Battle scored one of the biggest goals in program history as she headed in the game-winning goal with seven minutes left in the match. Battle notched the go-ahead goal off a bouncing ball deep inside the box from Ashley Barron.
Battle scored her first goal since the 2021 season, marking the sixth of her career, while Barron recorded her second assist of the season and fifth of her career.
Cincinnati is in its inaugural Big 12 Championship tournament, earned its first Big 12 conference tournament victory in program history and its first overall conference tournament win since 2020.
After the initial start to the match was delayed an hour due to the lighting, Cincinnati came back out onto the pitch and immediately went on the attack. Junior Fran Stables sent a rocket to the back of the net from just outside the box to score the match's first goal on a touch pass from Megan Smith.
Stables netted her second goal of the season and third of her career. The Manchester, England native has been the primary playmaker all season long for Cincinnati and recorded a season-high two assists in addition to the goal.
Cincinnati would head to halftime with 1-0 lead and remains unbeaten this season (3-0-1) when going to the break with the score advantage.
The Bearcats came out of the half with the same offensive focus as they did in the first, as freshman Emma Gioffre netted her second goal of the season. The freshman lofted one up and over Baylor's goalkeeper to give Cincinnati its largest lead of the season.
Baylor would not go down quietly as the Bears scored two consecutive goals, including the match-tying goal in the 82-minute. Battle scored the game-winning goal less than 55 seconds later than Baylor's last goal.
Cincinnati goalkeeper Anna Rexford was under fire in the second half as Baylor outshot UC 11-4. She finished the game with six saves on 16 shots faced, eight on goal. She now holds a career total of 204 saves and is the eighth Bearcat in program history to record over 200 saves in a career.
Barron also logged a career milestone as she played the full 90 for the 16th straight match, bringing her career total to 7,021 minutes played. She joins former Bearcat greats Kayla Utley and Vanessa Giles as the only players to achieve the feat.
//UP NEXT
Cincinnati will be back in action on Monday as the team will face the Big 12 Regular Season Champions, Texas Tech, in the tournament quarterfinals. The match is scheduled to kick off at 3 p.m. ET and will be streamed on Big 12 Now on ESPN+.
// FOLLOW THE BEARCATS
For all the latest information on Cincinnati women's soccer, please visit GoBEARCATS.com and follow @GoBearcatsWSOC on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.