Texas faced off against No. 1 seed Florida State in the third round of the NCAA Women’s College Cup on Sunday in Tallahassee. The Seminoles ended the game with a 5-0 win, ending the Longhorns’ season.
“You could feel the energy from the opening whistle, and that’s an incredibly talented team, and in my opinion, was the best team we’ve faced this season,” Texas head coach Angela Kelly said. “Obviously, a disappointing result for us, but I don’t want that to overshadow all the positive things our team accomplished this season which was a list yards long.”
From kickoff, the energy in the Seminole Soccer Complex was electric. Not to mention, junior goalkeeper Mia Justus would be facing off against her previous team for the first time since transferring to Texas in the offseason.
“We just bumped into an incredibly impressive team in Florida State tonight,” Kelly said. “They were just rocking on all cylinders and just congratulations to (Florida State women’s soccer head coach) Brian (Pensky) and his squad.”
The action was quick to start with both Texas and FSU proving why they are both top-ranked teams, with quick attacks in the first few minutes alone. Texas’ defense had to go to work with sophomore defender Breana Thompson finding herself in a lot of challenging matchups early on.
Despite a lot of coverage from the Texas defense, the Seminoles scored in the sixth minute, going on top 1-0 early. The goal came off a rebound header by senior forward Beata Olsson, who followed up a save by Justus off a left-leg shot of senior midfielder Onyi Echegini.
Not even a couple of minutes later, Echegini scored the goal she previously tried for. On a fast break, Echegini got a shot past Justus in the 10th minute, putting the Seminoles up 2-0.
Texas came into the tournament leading the nation in goals and shots, so with time left in the half, they could still prove to be dangerous. Junior midfielder Ashlyn Miller did just that. The Florida State defense made a mistake by giving up the ball in their defensive end and giving possession to junior forward Trinity Byars. Byars was able to create some distance and find Miller, who took a shot from a distance and hit the crossbar. Miller scored off a similar shot against previous tournament opponent Wisconsin on Friday.
Right after one of their first dangerous attacks, Thompson tackled Florida State freshman forward Jordynn Dudley in the box and FSU scored its third goal off a penalty in the 21st minute.
Although Texas made a number of offensive attempts, it went into the half trailing 3-0, one of their largest margins of the season. Florida State outshot Texas, led in possession and finished the half with eight shots on goal.
The story from the first half repeated itself with Texas’ defense unable to properly clear balls or hold strong against the Seminoles dominating offense, while the Seminoles kept Longhorns superstar Lexi Missimo off the ball as much as possible.
Missimo, who had uncharacteristically little production in the matchup, had one of her only shots in the match early on in the second half.
The Seminoles offense never slowed down, off an assist from Dudley, junior midfielder Taylor Huff scored a goal in the 50th minute to help extend the Seminole lead.
Later in the half, sophomore forward Olivia Garcia subbed into the game and scored off an assist from senior forward Jody Brown.
