IT'S WHAT SHE DOES
10/3/2026 3:52:00 PM | Soccer
Ary Jimison scores two goals in Bears’ 3-1 victory over Kansas
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
WACO, Texas – Scoring 18 career goals, including a team-high six this season for ninth-ranked Baylor, senior midfielder Aryanna Jimison has clearly got "all kinds of stuff in her bag."
"She pulls out all kinds of crazy stuff," Baylor coach Michelle Lenard said of Jimison, who had her third-career brace and the team's first of the season in Friday's 3-1 win over Kansas at Betty Lou Mays Field. "You guys haven't seen them all. Wait, we've got more games to come, so hopefully, we'll see more of them."
At the end of a first half that saw Kansas (8-3-1, 2-1-1) dominate possession, Jimison got a deflection off her own shot and ripped one from distance into the bottom right of the goal, giving the Bears a 1-0 lead just 46 seconds before intermission on what she described as a "knuckleball."
"Definitely great to get the first goal, just for the team," Jimison said, "because we were able to take a deep breath and then reevaluate going into the second half, obviously knowing we didn't have as many attacking chances as we usually do. Being able to go into the half up a goal allowed us to be like, 'Okay, we've got this. Let's go!'''
Senior defender Natalie Vatter, one of four Baylor players who logged all 90 minutes, said Jimison's first goal was "huge."
"I think that got the momentum going for the second half," Vatter said. "She deserved it, the whole team deserved it for the hard work."
While the Bears (10-1-1, 3-0-1) didn't get as many scoring chances in the first half and were outshot 21-11 for the game, "we definitely muted their attacks and the type of threats that we knew they would come into the game with," Lenard said.
"We made some second-half adjustments, and then you saw a much more potent attack from us in the second half."
The adjustments paid off immediately, when Jimison took a shot from just inside the box and recorded her second goal of the night just 77 seconds into the second half. Off assists from Sydney Wilson and Theresa McCullough, she buried the shot in the bottom left of the goal.
"That's what Ari can do," Lenard said. "And she's got the freedom to to take those types of shots, especially in a game like this. She knows when to take them and to give us a little breathing room going in the second half. I was really happy with the adjustments that the team made going into the second half. We looked way more dangerous, so we knew those second and third goals were likely coming."
The Bears' third goal came 20 minutes later, when freshman Brynnlee Bohannon recorded her second goal of the season with a shot into the bottom center of the goal off assists from McCullough and Olivia Hess.
Less than a minute away from goalkeeper Azul Alvarez's third clean sheet of the season, Baylor gave up a Jillian Gregorski goal with just 24 seconds left.
"We played really well and put ourselves in a position where one mistake didn't cost us the game," Lenard said. "That's what we want to be able to do. Obviously, if the game is 0-0 at the end, maybe we handle that differently, too. Not saying we took our foot off the gas, but they're throwing tons of numbers forward and trying to create something out of nothing. It took a bad bounce and took a deflection off of us, which was unfortunate."
Coupled with Houston's 2-0 loss to 18th-ranked West Virginia, Baylor is now tied atop the Big 12 standings with BYU and 14th-ranked Texas Tech at 3-0-1.
"It's exciting, but there's more games to play," Jimison said. "We've got a game coming (at No. 17 Colorado) on Thursday. That's not going to be an easy match, so we just have to keep working hard."
And more likely than not, Jimison's going to keep scoring goals. She is tied for sixth in the Big 12 with six goals.
"She's been consistently doing it since she got here," Lenard said of Jimison, a transfer from Houston who scored seven goals in her first two collegiate seasons. "But she's doing it now more frequently. And her game has developed to become much more well-rounded. She's always been able to score goals, but she's putting in hard minutes defensively and winning the ball back for us."
Off this weekend, the Bears will play Colorado (8-3-1, 2-2-0) at 8 p.m. CT Thursday in Boulder before coming back to host Kansas State (5-3-4, 0-3-1) at 12 p.m. next Sunday, Oct. 11.
Baylor Bear Insider
WACO, Texas – Scoring 18 career goals, including a team-high six this season for ninth-ranked Baylor, senior midfielder Aryanna Jimison has clearly got "all kinds of stuff in her bag."
"She pulls out all kinds of crazy stuff," Baylor coach Michelle Lenard said of Jimison, who had her third-career brace and the team's first of the season in Friday's 3-1 win over Kansas at Betty Lou Mays Field. "You guys haven't seen them all. Wait, we've got more games to come, so hopefully, we'll see more of them."
At the end of a first half that saw Kansas (8-3-1, 2-1-1) dominate possession, Jimison got a deflection off her own shot and ripped one from distance into the bottom right of the goal, giving the Bears a 1-0 lead just 46 seconds before intermission on what she described as a "knuckleball."
"Definitely great to get the first goal, just for the team," Jimison said, "because we were able to take a deep breath and then reevaluate going into the second half, obviously knowing we didn't have as many attacking chances as we usually do. Being able to go into the half up a goal allowed us to be like, 'Okay, we've got this. Let's go!'''
Senior defender Natalie Vatter, one of four Baylor players who logged all 90 minutes, said Jimison's first goal was "huge."
"I think that got the momentum going for the second half," Vatter said. "She deserved it, the whole team deserved it for the hard work."
While the Bears (10-1-1, 3-0-1) didn't get as many scoring chances in the first half and were outshot 21-11 for the game, "we definitely muted their attacks and the type of threats that we knew they would come into the game with," Lenard said.
"We made some second-half adjustments, and then you saw a much more potent attack from us in the second half."
The adjustments paid off immediately, when Jimison took a shot from just inside the box and recorded her second goal of the night just 77 seconds into the second half. Off assists from Sydney Wilson and Theresa McCullough, she buried the shot in the bottom left of the goal.
"That's what Ari can do," Lenard said. "And she's got the freedom to to take those types of shots, especially in a game like this. She knows when to take them and to give us a little breathing room going in the second half. I was really happy with the adjustments that the team made going into the second half. We looked way more dangerous, so we knew those second and third goals were likely coming."
The Bears' third goal came 20 minutes later, when freshman Brynnlee Bohannon recorded her second goal of the season with a shot into the bottom center of the goal off assists from McCullough and Olivia Hess.
Less than a minute away from goalkeeper Azul Alvarez's third clean sheet of the season, Baylor gave up a Jillian Gregorski goal with just 24 seconds left.
"We played really well and put ourselves in a position where one mistake didn't cost us the game," Lenard said. "That's what we want to be able to do. Obviously, if the game is 0-0 at the end, maybe we handle that differently, too. Not saying we took our foot off the gas, but they're throwing tons of numbers forward and trying to create something out of nothing. It took a bad bounce and took a deflection off of us, which was unfortunate."
Coupled with Houston's 2-0 loss to 18th-ranked West Virginia, Baylor is now tied atop the Big 12 standings with BYU and 14th-ranked Texas Tech at 3-0-1.
"It's exciting, but there's more games to play," Jimison said. "We've got a game coming (at No. 17 Colorado) on Thursday. That's not going to be an easy match, so we just have to keep working hard."
And more likely than not, Jimison's going to keep scoring goals. She is tied for sixth in the Big 12 with six goals.
"She's been consistently doing it since she got here," Lenard said of Jimison, a transfer from Houston who scored seven goals in her first two collegiate seasons. "But she's doing it now more frequently. And her game has developed to become much more well-rounded. She's always been able to score goals, but she's putting in hard minutes defensively and winning the ball back for us."
Off this weekend, the Bears will play Colorado (8-3-1, 2-2-0) at 8 p.m. CT Thursday in Boulder before coming back to host Kansas State (5-3-4, 0-3-1) at 12 p.m. next Sunday, Oct. 11.
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