There’s no other way for Lucy Quintana to put it. Marci Jobson’s first few months at the helm of the Baylor soccer team were a sober “awakening.”

“I think that’s really what this program needed,” Quintana, a senior defender, said. “It’s been nothing but building a foundation.”

Jobson’s culture change is about to receive another battery of tests this season, which officially gets under way against Rice at 7 p.m. Friday at Betty Lou Mays Field. After the team’s best overall season since 2000 last year, there’s a growing sense in the clubhouse that Baylor soccer’s doormat days are squashed.

Seniors Lucy Quintana (left), Lotto Smith (center) and Lindsey Johnson anchor a Baylor team that has its sights set on a second straight trip to the Big 12 tournament.
Jerry Larson/Tribune-Herald

It’s not that Jobson came onto the job breathing fire in December of 2007, but her U.S. women’s national team experience imbued her coaching techniques with a level of intensity the team thought had been lacking in previous years.

After just two seasons, Jobson has already led Baylor to its most conference wins (three) since 2002, and its first Big 12 tournament appearance since 2006 last year. Before an 8-6-5 season last year, it had been nine years since the team posted a winning record.

The Bears were so hungry for wins that Jobson’s rigorous training regimen barely made a dent in team numbers after her first few months on the job.

“It’s not a knock on a previous coaching staff or a previous way things were done, I just think the girls didn’t understand what competing was,” Jobson said. “They didn’t get a lot of things that create success, and from work rate to taking care of your bodies to just being fit and creating a culture of winning.”

While Jobson has been explicit about her players logging club playing time where possible in the offseason, some of the first steps she took began with off-the-field training.

Jobson’s fitness standards are notoriously stringent, an all-encompassing umbrella that includes the team’s mandatory fitness test. Each player has to run the 800 meters five times in 3:15 after reconvening from the summer. Those who don’t pass join the “Breakfast Club,” a group of players forced to come in before the morning practices to train to take it again.

“Over the summer, everyone knows that if you don’t come in fit, you’re going to wish you did,” said senior forward Lotto Smith, the lead returning goal-scorer with eight last year.

The product on the field last season wasn’t always attractive, flowing soccer, but it was deadly efficient. Baylor only allowed 18 goals all year at a clip of 0.95 per game, including seven shutouts. Tactically, it’s not that the Bears’ formation allowed them to bunker in their own half, either. The defense was just that good.

The offense didn’t follow at the same clip, but it wasn’t exactly rudderless either. The team’s 27 goals were still good enough to scratch together eight wins.

The goal this year is to keep the defensive intensity intact and, at the same time, pump up the offensive numbers. It starts with Smith, but 89 percent of the team’s scoring returns, including all three forwards: Smith, Hanna Gilmore and Dana Larsen. Gilmore and Larsen were both just freshmen last year.

The Bears plan to take more risks offensively and connect on chances that were one or two touches from being goals last year.

Balancing act

“This year, that’s what Marci keeps saying is, ‘You guys have improved so much on your passes and your touch, but I don’t want you to lose your defense or what you’re really good at,’ ” senior midfield general Lindsey Johnson said. “I feel like it’s finding the balance of staying our hard-nosed defense, but also getting out there and connect those passes and score goals. It’s definitely all being pieced together like a puzzle.”

Baylor typically plays a base 4-3-3 formation, meaning four defenders are grouped with three midfielders and three forwards, but the Bears are versatile enough to tailor that to each opponent, sometimes even drastically changing the look. Led by Quintana’s outstanding defensive sensibilities, the Bears hope to build from the back and push into the top half of the Big 12, something that hasn’t been done in Waco in 10 years.

The signs are there. Jobson brought in a heralded recruiting class in the offseason, including ESPN RISE second-team All-American Taylor Heatherly. Fellow freshman defender Vic Hoffman is a member of the U.S. Olympic Development team. Team excitement is there too, and the clubhouse is abuzz with the possibilities.

“I’m excited,” Jobson said. “It’s kind of like whenever you’re building something. You’re working on this thing, and you’re just kind of ready to see how it goes and get out there and play a game against another team.”

wparchman@wacotrib.com

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