Texas Soccer earned their spot in the SEC championship after a draining yet resilient 90 minutes plus overtime, to beat the No. 3 seed and No. 5 ranked team in the country, Arkansas Razorbacks, by scoring a late goal in the second half of overtime to seal the game 2-1.
Arkansas began the semifinal with a smothering amount of pressure high on Texas’ back line. Not letting Texas settle comfortably into the game, this pressure allowed the Razorbacks to take the lead.
From a corner kick, the Razorbacks opened the goal count in the semifinal after a weak clearance from Texas. Arkansas sophomore midfielder Kennedy Ball recovered possession on the edge of the box and rifle that took a friendly deflection and found itself in the back of the Texas net.
As time was escaping Texas to get back into the game before halftime, the Longhorns pulled themselves back to a tied game at 1-1. After a deep drive into the right side of the box and a cross from senior forward Holly Ward, the trend of deflections continued. The cross from Ward took a big deflection from an Arkansas defender and ended as an own goal.
The first half of action was mostly played at Arkansas’ pace and in the Texas half with their backs toward their own goal.
With a constant brigade of attacking pressure from Arkansas onto Texas, Arkansas continued to push Texas back into their defending third of the field. This forced Texas to play counter-attacking soccer that would quickly be stopped by the Razorbacks counter-pressure.
Texas was able to hang on the rest of the way and force overtime after no additional goals were scored in the last 45 minutes. Withstanding the avalanche of Arkansas’ attack that finished regulation with 17 shots and forced Texas’ senior goalkeeper Mia Justus to make 11 saves in regulation, Justus ended the game with a career-high 14 saves.
In the final minutes of the second overtime period the long-time Longhorn graduate student defender Lauren Lapomarda scored the golden goal. After picking up possession of the ball and driving deep on the right-hand side, taking a chance on a shot, the ball snuck in and sealed the game, sending the Longhorns to the SEC tournament championship game in its first-ever tournament.
Texas earned its right to stay in Pensacola to play for the SEC championship against the No. 4 seeded South Carolina Gamecocks this Sunday at 1:30 CT, who earlier in the day earned their ticket to the final upsetting the Mississippi State Bulldogs 3-0.
