Soccer’s Angela Kelly earns 200th career win with 3-1 triumph

Friday, August 26

Austin, Texas

7:30 p.m.

University of Texas

1-1-0

College of Charleston

0-3-0

College of Charlesto

Texas

Soccer’s Angela Kelly earns 200th career win with 3-1 triumph

08.26.2016 | Soccer

Box Score

Longhorns get goals from Olivia Brook, Jasmine Hart & Alexa Adams to beat College of Charleston

Photo Gallery

AUSTIN, Texas – Goals from junior forward Olivia Brook, senior forward Jasmine Hart and sophomore forward Alexa Adams powered Texas soccer (1-1-0) past the College of Charleston on Friday night at Mike A. Myers Stadium, and in the process, earned Longhorns head soccer coach Angela Kelly her 200th career victory.

For Kelly, 40 of her wins have now come on the Forty Acres while the other 160 came during a 12-year stint as the head coach at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Interestingly enough, College of Charleston's head coach Christian Michner is the brother of Kendyl Michner, one of Kelly's first recruits signed as a head coach for the Lady Vols.

The scores for Brook, Hart (also added an assist for a three-point night) and Adams marked the first of the season for all three players, while Texas junior defender Monique Iannella and freshman defender Emma Jett each registered the first assists and points of their Texas careers. Senior goalkeeper Cara Connatser made two stops between the pipes in earning her first career win in net for the Burnt Orange & White.

The Longhorns out-shot the Cougars by a 16-13 count and led 5-3 in shots in goal. UT also managed a 7-2 advantage in corner kicks during the contest.

"It's always about the players (speaking about her 200th win)," Kelly said. "Win #201 is just as important as #200 in my book. But if we are going to reflect, I need to reflect on all of my past recruiting classes. I've been coaching now for 17 years, so there are a ton of players at two programs that gave blood, sweat and tears for that. So, I'm really appreciative of them, and the opportunity that the University of Tennessee, Joan Cronan and the legendary Pat Summitt gave me just for taking a first chance on me at a very young age. I'm very grateful for that as well as for the tremendous opportunity that the University of Texas has provided me since 2012 as head coach of the Longhorns."

Early on in the contest, the College of Charleston proved the aggressor, mounting early pressure over the opening two minutes and registering a pair of shots that were blocked and saved routinely.

That didn't last long, however, as the Texas offense soon kicked into gear. It appeared the Horns had jumped to an early lead during the eighth minute as a Hart header off a free kick, delivered by Jett to the back post, ended up in the twine. Unfortunately, the linesman's flag was up on the far side signaling offside to negate the goal.

At the 15:15 mark, Jett and Hart teamed up for a near replay of the previous free kick effort as Hart again found herself on the end of a feed at the back post. Unfortunately, her headed try traveled right into the waiting arms of Cougar keeper Lauren Killian for a save.

Finally, after several near misses, all the Texas pressure paid dividends with the opening goal at 21:48. Jett battled a defender on the left wing and tapped a pass ahead to Hart. The Haltom City, Texas, product fed a ball into the left edge of the 18-yard box to Brook, who dribbled ahead once and slotted a ball past Killian into the far corner of the net to make it 1-0.

It took just 3:31 for the Longhorns to double their lead to two scores. Iannella delivered a long pass ahead up the right side to Hart, who managed a wonderful touch to settle the sharply-hit ball down to her feet. She took a quick dribble and launched a shot from 12 yards that tickled the twine.

The Cougars wouldn't back down, however, pulling back a goal at 32:20. A cross into the middle of the 18 was headed back out front by a Texas defender. The ball dropped right at the feet of Ali Freitas, and from 19 yards out, she right-footed a ball just inside the left post past a diving Connatser to cut the deficit to 2-1.

Texas recorded the last serious threat of the opening 45 minutes as a header by sophomore midfielder Nakia Graham at 41:40 drifted wide right.

During the 58th minute, the Longhorns tallied some valuable insurance as Adams took control of a ball in the middle of the pitch, dribbled right up the middle of the field inside the 18 and fired a right-footed effort from 14 yards out that hit pay dirt for a 3-1 advantage.

The College of Charleston almost answered right back just 24 seconds after the re-start as a quick move up field ended in a Connatser stop on a Sara Deutsch shot.

The Longhorns defense refused to allow the Cougars a real opportunity to climb back in the match the rest of the way as C of C managed just three shots over the final 24:15, with those being wide right, high and blocked.

Texas Soccer Post Match Quotes – College of Charleston

Texas head coach Angela Kelly

On what she saw out of her team in tonight's victory: I think we were able to have a quick reset and had a fantastic week's training. I think the backbone of every championship program is a competitive spirit and mentality. We had the ability to train the basics this week, and that's the byproduct of training and having a mentality.

On senior forward Jasmine Hart: She was fearless. She's wonderful because when you tell her something, she immediately wants to apply it, so there's the application of the implementation right away. I mentioned that there are always chances every time you touch the ball and when you're in the attacking third, that's an opportunity. She obviously took it to heart, no pun on words. I'm really proud of the way in that she was an aggressor. She took care of the ball, she held it in well and she got in behind. I think it was a collective team effort; they were just all over the field. They bought into and believed in one another and battled to win the first and second balls.

Texas sophomore forward Alexa Adams

On the effectiveness of the offense: I think we just came out with a better mentality this week. We worked all week to get back to where we know where we should be, because last week we didn't get the result that we wanted.

On how to bring the forward momentum into Sunday's match against Detroit: I think focusing on Sunday's game is the most important thing, but with this win, I think we know what we need to do for the rest of the season because we can play big teams, and we can win. We just have to have a strong mentality and show up to win every week.

Texas senior forward Jasmine Hart

On head coach Angela Kelly earning her 200th career win: She works really hard. She really deserves it. She puts in so much work for this team, and she's a huge competitor; she wants nothing but the best for us, and she deserves it more than any other coach.

On tonight's offensive success: I think we got the balls out wide. We have two outside forward backs, and they're able to get up and down the field. They really helped us out on offense and when we crossed the ball, we automatically had numbers out in the box. In practices we had been working on straight finishing and having a good mentality.