As rain poured down on Pensacola, confetti poured down on the Texas Longhorns.
Texas captured the SEC championship title after another close game, with the Longhorns winning 1-0 over the South Carolina Gamecocks with a late goal.
This victory for the Texas Longhorns marks the second time in program history that Texas soccer has captured back-to-back conference titles since 2006 and 2007. It is also head Coach Angela Kelly’s fifth SEC title of her career and second title with the Texas Longhorns.
It was another slow start for Texas Soccer: the first 25 minutes of the first half, South Carolina dictated the pace of the match. However, Texas’s stout defense, much like it has all year long, withstood and absorbed the initial pressure from the Gamecocks.
The remainder of the half opened up for Texas, and the team chained together strings of passes and got the game into South Carolina’s half of the field. Texas finished the half with three shots and one on goal, but South Carolina continued to make their pressure felt, ending the half with seven shots on goal, with three of them threatening the Texas goal.
A very tight and contested first 45 minutes in the SEC championship game concluded deadlocked at 0.
The second half remained like the first, with South Carolina re-sparking its offensive pressure and ending the game with 17 total shots, seven of which ended on goal. Forcing the Texas defense to endure the pressure, senior goalkeeper Mia Justus put together another clean sheet with seven saves.
Breaking the draw late was a header from sophomore defender Carly Montgomery after a looping corner kick from senior midfielder Lexi Missimo. Set piece opportunities like this were not available in numbers for Texas and the goal came from just their second of three corner kicks of the game. Montgomery scored the game-winning goal on her second goal of the season and the third of her young Texas career.
A desperate South Carolina team upped the pressure, hoping to get back into the game late in the half. A big save through traffic from Justus after a shot from the top of the box kept Texas leading. A few minutes later a strike from South Carolina forward Catherine Barry dangerously hit the post of Justus’ goal, but the score would remain the same.
South Carolina continued to push forward in the final five minutes of the game to save their SEC season to no avail. The referee would sound her whistle for the final time of the game, and the Longhorns’ celebrations commenced.
Texas will get to celebrate its title throughout the night, but tomorrow they will find out where they land in the NCAA tournament. They may begin NCAA tournament play as early as Nov. 15.
