No. 7 Baylor heads to Boulder on Thursday night for a ranked Big 12 showdown with No. 24 Colorado, with both teams sitting among the league’s top five in the latest top-25 landscape.
The Bears and Buffaloes meet at 8 p.m. CT at Prentup Field in a match that will be streamed live on ESPN+. Baylor enters tied with Texas Tech and BYU atop the Big 12 standings at 10 points and a 3-0-1 record, while Colorado is tied for seventh with six points after a 2-2 start to conference play.
Baylor has spent the season inside the national rankings, holding the No. 7 spot this week after climbing as high as No. 6 in the second week of the poll. It’s the fourth time Michelle Lenard’s team has been ranked in the top 10 and the ninth top-10 ranking in program history.
Thursday also adds another chapter to a long series between the schools. This will be the 19th meeting between Baylor and Colorado, and the all-time series is dead even at 7-7-4. Since Colorado returned to the Big 12 in 2024, Baylor has gone 1-0-1 against the Buffaloes, winning 2-1 in 2025 and drawing 1-1 in 2024.
Colorado arrives at 8-3-1 overall and has been powered by Reagan Kotschau and Hope Leyba, who each have seven goals. Kotschau also leads the Buffaloes with six assists. In goal, Brooke Goerish has started eight matches and appeared in all 12, posting 38 saves, a 0.777 goals-against average and four shoutouts.
The Buffaloes opened Big 12 play with a 1-0 win over Iowa State and a 2-0 upset of then-No. 10 West Virginia, but have since dropped back-to-back matches to Texas Tech, 3-1, and UCF, 2-0.
Baylor comes in at 10-1-1 overall and has not lost in nine straight matches. The Bears also own a six-game conference regular-season winning streak that stretches back to last year.
Aryanna Jimison, the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week, leads Baylor with 15 points on six goals and three assists. Lauren Omholt follows with 12 points on five goals and two assists. In net, Azul Alvarez has played all 1,080 minutes, made 40 saves and carries a 1.00 goals-against average.
After Thursday’s trip, Baylor returns home to face Kansas State on Sunday, Oct. 11, then TCU on Friday, Oct. 16. Home matches are free and streamed live all year on ESPN+.
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That kind of turnover is exactly why Baylor keeps drawing the same debate. The Bears were not the team they wanted to be a year ago, but the talent reset has some outside evaluators wondering whether the long view is more interesting than the last record suggests. Andy Katz has already put Baylor in the conversation as a potential dark horse Final Four team for the 2026-27 season, which is a reminder that in Waco, roster churn usually comes with bigger questions about how high the ceiling really is. [Read more 🡒]