Texas softball knows what it feels like to reach the mountaintop, having claimed its first Women’s College World Series title in 2025.
The issue with being on that mountaintop, however, is that every program in the country wants to know what the view looks like. The Longhorns will spend all season trying to defend their spot at the peak, a journey that starts this weekend at the UTSA Invitational in San Antonio.
For head coach Mike White, the goal of this opening weekend is simple.
“I’d like to see us win,” White said. “But it’s gonna be how we play the game. That’s what it’s really about, and you can ask the players. Sometimes we will win ugly, but I’m still not happy with that. It’s the way we play the game. Go play it the right way, execute the opportunities that are there for us, do the little things that really add up at the end of the season.”
With five games on the docket against Nebraska, Washington and UTSA, this invitational is an opportunity for the Longhorns to get back into the swing of things and see how effective offseason training has been. Given that they will be up against a top-10 ranked Cornhuskers team right off the bat, it would aid the Longhorns to knock any rust off as fast as possible.
“I expect Nebraska to be in the top five or six by the time the season ends,” White said. “I think they’re a very tough opponent.”
Nebraska just missed the eight-team Women’s College World Series bracket in 2025, getting eliminated from the postseason in the round of 16 by Tennessee. Led by senior pitcher Jordy Frahm and a talented group of returners, the team enters the season with a lot of promise.
“She’s their ace,” Texas junior pitcher Teagan Kavan said. “That’s who we’re expecting, (that’s) who we’re training for, so just focusing on the things that she throws and as a team coming together and just kind of walking through what we do. We have all the talent that we need.”
The Cornhuskers are ranked within the top 10 on several preseason rankings lists, making this opening matchup on Friday a chance for both teams to get a more accurate idea of where they stand.
Texas will also get the opportunity to take on Washington and UTSA, two programs that had strong seasons last year.
With Feb. 6 marking the official start date for the Longhorns, the wait to see the defending national champions take to the diamond again is nearing its end. The glitz and glamour of 2025 has become a matter of the past, and they now look to hold down the fort at the top.
“This season is going to take just as much work, if not more,” Kavan said. “I think obviously we should use the experience that we got last year as confidence, but definitely the hard work is not over, and it just means we’ve got more to do.”
