No. 5 seeded Texas soccer defeated No. 4 seeded Wisconsin 2-1 in Tallahassee, Florida, to make it to the NCAA Third Round for the first time since 2017.
“It was a tale of two halves,” head coach Angela Kelly said. “(Wisconsin) was very well organized, some weapons on top and their midfield played extremely well today. (I’m) really proud of our squad and how they battled.”
A scoreless 40 minutes came to an end as Wisconsin sophomore forward Riley Philbin found the back of the net. Less than two minutes later, junior midfielder Ashley Martinez got past the Texas defense to make it 2-0 for the Badgers, but the goal was ruled offside.
Going into the second half one goal down, the Texas offense had full energy.
“Ultimately, for any athlete in any sport, you gotta make decisions on how you execute, the amount of effort you put and the way you exert this effort,” Kelly said. “We could’ve done a better job at that in the first half and I just commend our players for making that decision. It was a decision that was not made by me.”
Six minutes into the half, junior midfielder Ashlyn Miller tied the game for the Longhorns with an assist from junior midfielder Lexi Missimo.
“(The goal) gave us a little bit of hope,” Miller said. “When you score a goal your momentum just goes high.”
With the successful pass to Miller, Missimo became the only player in the Big 12 Conference history to have 20 goals and 20 assists in a season.
At the 67 minute mark, Missimo, assisted by junior midfielder Jilly Shimkin, put Texas in front and maintained her tournament goal streak. She now has 26 goals this season.
Junior goalkeeper Mia Justus had one save in her former home field. The Florida State transfer, in her first season at Texas, set a new record as the goalkeeper with the most wins in a single season for the Longhorns with 17.
Kelly praised her junior class and named them one of the reasons the program has had recent success. She said the players chose a different institution than most of their national team teammates.
“They wanted to pave their own pathway,” Kelly said. “As a collective unit they’ve put their stamp in this program and they’re reaping the rewards of that.”
Texas has never gotten past the NCAA Round of 16, and will face the winner of the Texas A&M and Florida State matchupon Sunday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. for a chance to make program history.
