TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Alabama women's soccer team fell short to the defending West Coast Conference champions, No. 22 BYU, 1-0, in the 2019 home opener.

"I'm certainly disappointed with the result," head coach Wes Hart said. "But we showed some things tonight that excite me and lead me to believe that we're going to be okay. BYU's going to win a heck of a lot of games, and I think if we play like we did tonight – if we battle and compete like we did tonight – we're going to win our fair share of games as well."

The game-winning goal for BYU by Mikayla Colohan came early, only eight minutes into the first half.

Alabama fought aggressively throughout the night, accumulating a total of 15 fouls. While trying to get on the scoreboard, the Tide maintained possession 62 percent of the match.

The aggressiveness nearly paid off for Alabama when freshman Carly Wyatt found herself with an opportunity at a breakaway. Wyatt launched a shot from 20-yeards-out, however it missed the goal slightly to the left by mere inches.

After 90 minutes of action, the Tide had nine shots, with three on frame, but the BYU Cougars had fifteen shots and nine on frame. The Cougars also attempted more corner kicks, 5-2.

Junior Alex Plavin , who played all 90 minutes, collected eight saves throughout the match.

"All the players did an awesome job, but a lot of those freshmen didn't play like freshmen," Hart said. " Macy Clem played 90 minutes as holding midfielder against one of the best attacking midfielders in the country. Serena Pham on the left side did an awesome job, Allie Berk on the side – you could really go down the list."

Alabama will face Utah at home this Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. CT. Admission is free to all home games.

Get all the latest information on the team by following @AlabamaSoccer on Twitter and Facebook and AlabamaSoccer on Instagram. General athletic news can also be found at UA_Athletics on Twitter and Instagram and AlabamaAthletics on Facebook.