Texas soccer’s 2025 season concluded over one week ago, closing with a record of 4-12-1. While the Longhorns finished the season on a strong note, winning their season finale, the season overall was far from the standard set by head coach Ange Kelly’s squads.
Texas was unable to defend its Southeastern Conference Tournament championship from a year ago, not even qualifying for this season’s tournament. The struggle-filled season followed an offseason in which the Longhorns lost 10 total players from their roster, with six of their seven top scorers all leaving after the 2024 season.
Kelly added nine freshman players ahead of the season, three of whom — forwards Ava McDonald and Audrey Bryant and midfielder Sadie Hoch — saw action in all of the Longhorns’ 17 games of the season. The three each played over 1,000 minutes this year.
Of the team’s freshmen, McDonald stood out among the rest, confirming her status as the No. 7 prospect according to Top Drawer Soccer. The forward led the Longhorns in goals, with nine to her tally, pairing that with four assists en route to earning the SEC Freshman of the Year award and earning spots on the All-SEC second and All-Freshmen teams.
After the season finale, Kelly highlighted the importance of the team’s freshmen gaining so much experience in their first season on the Forty Acres.
“The takeaways are that they built a ton of resilience,” Kelly said. “The young ones now, the Sadie Hoch’s, Audrey Bryant’s, Ava McDonald’s and even Cameron (Byrd’s) late. If a freshman is logging in more than 1,200 minutes, they’re not going to be a freshman the next year, they’re going to be a junior.”
All of the Longhorns’ newcomers saw action in at least one game throughout the season. Four of them scored goals, as McDonald, Hoch, Bryant and forward Annie Gnidula all found the back of the net for the first time for Texas.
Within the season, Kelly also had to make a change in the net after giving the starting nod to goalkeeper Mateya Dessieux. Dessieux started the first nine games for the Longhorns, conceding 20 goals but making 40 saves before being replaced by another youngster in redshirt freshman Kendell Williams. The second-year goalkeeper started the last eight games for the Longhorns, giving up 21 goals and making 27 saves as well as recording the only clean sheet for the Longhorns.
As the Longhorns head into the offseason and look to improve for the 2026 season, Kelly emphasized how the young players on her team have been able to grow throughout the season and how that experience will benefit them moving forward.
“That’s very rare in a program that you go in as a freshman and get those many minutes,” Kelly said. “You bring that, that group along, and we have great additions coming in, and you look forward to the transfer portal, and you just build your 2026 squad, so just looking forward to the growth that these young ones have.”
