Playing a familiar opponent, the SMU women’s soccer team went undefeated this weekend, taking down the Baylor Bears 4-1 Thursday evening and matching the No. 11 Pepperdine Wave in a 1-1 tie (2OT), Sunday afternoon at Westcott Field.

ààààà During the first half against Baylor, the Mustangs didn’t show signs of improvement. Facing former head coach George Van Linder, who left after the 2002 season, the Mustangs played a step slow all half, falling behind just 41 seconds into the game when Tiffany Boshers stole the ball off a bad pass by Gillian Field and pulled out goalkeeper Ashley Gunter before scoring.

But less than 20 seconds later, sophomore forward Kimber Bailey stole a pass deep in the Baylor box and beat goalkeeper Ashley Holder to tie the score at one. The score would remain the same all half, and while the Mustangs outshot the Bears 12-6, SMU head coach John Cossaboon was not happy with his team’s performance.

“I think our talk during halftime really helped us,” sophomore forward Jena Lind said. “Everybody just knew in themselves how they played in the first half wasn’t good enough, and they knew how to bring it out of themselves in the second half.”

The Mustangs came out inspired in the second half, and they were much more effective in pressuring the ball and created better scoring chances because of it. Forward Krystal Bailey gave SMU the lead in the 54th minute with a nice shot to the upper left corner with the assist going to her sister.

Lind gave the Mustangs an insurance goal in the 65th minute when she slotted the ball past Holder, and Kimber Bailey put the game away just over a minute later when she buried a shot in the low right corner.

While the game against Baylor was played in relatively pleasant conditions, Sunday’s afternoon game against Pepperdine was a scorcher. The teams played in 100–degree heat with not a cloud in sight.

Double overtime wasn’t an appealing option given the heat, but the game was tightly fought, as Pepperdine’s defense bent several times but only broke once during the afternoon.

In fact, the Wave scored first when Jennifer Brewer escaped down the left side of the field and sent in a centering cross that Megan Woods headed past a diving Gunter. Pepperdine milked that lead the rest of the half, despite being generally outplayed and outshot 7-2.

SMU finally broke through in the 61st when sophomore Autumn Browning headed home a Morgan Field corner kick to tie the game at one. The score stood up through the rest of regulation and two overtimes, even through a Kimber Bailey penalty kick attempt in the first overtime that was saved by goalkeeper Anna Picarelli.

Even though they weren’t able to pull out the win, the tie with Pepperdine was some of the best soccer the Mustangs have played all season, according to the head coach.

“It’s the first time we played at that level all year,” Cossaboon said. “Part of it was the quality of the other team brought it out of us, and part of it was we finally put it together. Everything goes off our pressure. If one person lets us down, then there’re gaps and holes and anyone can penetrate. It’s a mentality as much as it is a tactic, and they’re starting to buy into it, starting to believe in it.”

SMU returns to Westcott Field next Friday at 7 p.m. to take on the No. 22 USC Trojans in their last non-conference match of the season.