No. 20 Soccer preview: at Kansas

Match 18: #20 Texas (9-3-5, 5-0-3 Big 12) at Kansas (7-10-1, 2-6-0 Big 12)

Time: Thursday, Oct. 28 – 7 p.m. CT

Location: Lawrence, Kan. (Rock Chalk Park)

Live Stats: LINK

TV: The match will be web-streamed live on Big 12 Now on ESPN+ and can be watched online for a subscription fee through this LINK.

Free Kicks:

Texas leads its all-time series over Kansas by a total of 17-8-3, including 8-4-1 on the road in Lawrence. The Longhorns are 2-1-1 over the last four overall meetings against the Jayhawks and have won three of the last four road match-ups. In all, 20 of the previous 21 series contests have been settled by one goal or required overtime.

Texas was without the services of senior All-American midfielder Julia Grosso and freshman midfielder Amelia Abbott last week against West Virginia and Oklahoma State because of international duty. Grosso was with the Canadian Women's Senior National Team on its gold medal "Canada Celebration Tour," while Abbott earned her first senior-level call-up and national team cap (came on as a sub during the first match against Canada on Oct. 23) with the New Zealand Senior Women's National Team as part of the same tour. Canada and New Zealand contested friendlies in Ottawa and Montreal on Oct. 23 & 26.

Texas heads into Thursday's match at Kansas sitting second in the Big 12 regular-season standings behind TCU (2.38 points-per-match) at 2.25 points-per-match. Because the Oklahoma State-Iowa State match was cancelled due to lightning and couldn't be made up, the Big 12 champion will be determined by POINTS-PER-MATCH this season. On Thursday night, if TCU were to lose or tie at Texas Tech and the Longhorns win at Kansas, Texas would win its second all-time Big 12 regular-season title.

Texas is currently riding a season-long, 11-match unbeaten run dating back to Sept. 12. During their skein, the Longhorns have outscored opponents by a total of 24-6, fired off an average of 18.2 shots-per-match and registered seven shutouts. Eight different Texas players have scored goals over that stretch led by the "Run BMG" trio of Byars (eight goals), Missimo (six goals) and Grosso (four goals). Fifth-year senior goalkeeper Savannah Madden has posted a 0.52 GAA and an .864 save percentage while making 38 saves over 1044:26 of match action.

Texas is unbeaten through its first eight Big 12 matches (5-0-3) for the third time in school history (other instances were 2002 and 2001) and for the first time under head coach Angela Kelly. The last time Texas started Big 12 play unbeaten through nine matches was 2002 when the Longhorns opened at 9-0-0. UT was also unbeaten through nine Big 12 contests during the program's only Big 12 regular-season title run back in 2001 (9-0-0). WITH A WIN OR TIE AT KANSAS, TEXAS COULD POST THE FIRST UNBEATEN BIG 12 CONFERENCE SEASON IN PROGRAM HISTORY.

The Longhorns recent set a new program record by recording a shutout streak of 552:56 that stretched over parts of six matches from Sept. 30 against No. 10 TCU into the Oct. 24 contest against Oklahoma State. Texas had already posted another lengthy streak this season, blanking opponents for 334:11 from Sept. 16-26. The old program record for the longest shutout streak was 453:09 from Oct. 10-26, 2008.

Texas is now 1-0-5 this year in overtime matches, while the six total OT contests are the most for UT in a single season since the Longhorns played a program record 10 overtime matches back in 2017.

It's a third straight week in the national rankings for Texas as a season-long unbeaten streak has helped the Longhorns climb to No. 20 in the latest release of the United Soccer Coaches poll. This is the highest UT has been in the national rankings since starting at No. 19 in the 2019 preseason coaches poll.

The University of Texas at Austin Athletics