Soccer grabs ‘match by the horns,’ advances to semifinals

Monday, October 30

Austin, TX

11:30 AM

University of Texas

13-4-2, 6-3-1

West Virginia

7-8-4, 5-3-2

West Virginia

Texas

Soccer grabs ‘match by the horns,’ advances to semifinals

10.30.2023 | Soccer

Box Score

Three first-half goals propel Texas into the Big 12 semifinals for third straight season

By: Chris Allen Brown

AUSTIN, Texas – A lot of questions surrounded the 2023 Sprouts Farmers Market Big 12 Soccer Championship entering Monday morning's quarterfinal matches. But by the early afternoon, there was at least one certain: Texas would be playing in the tournament's semifinals on Wednesday after the fourth-seeded Longhorns knocked off fifth seed West Virginia, 3-1.

It took Texas less than nine minutes into the frigid, 40-degree match to find the back of the net as the Big 12's Midfielder of the Year Lexi Missimo pushed her season goal total to 21 with a screamer into the top-right corner of the net from the top of the 18-yard box. Five minutes later, Missimo inched closer to a 20-goal, 20-assist season as the Southlake native was credited with an assist on Trinity Byars' 16th goal of the season and 45th for her career, one shy of the program's career mark of 46 set by Kelly McDonald (2001-04).

The two-goal lead wasn't enough for the Longhorns, though, as Missimo was credited with her 22nd goal after converting her seventh penalty kick opportunity of the season after Byars drew a foul on the edge of the 18-yard box with less than seven minutes remaining before halftime.

West Virginia's lone goal of the match occurred at the 56:59 mark of the second half when Dilary Heredia-Beltran took a pass from Jordyn Wilson and found the bottom-right corner of the net. It was just one of two shot of goals for the Mountaineers throughout the entirety of the match's 90 minutes.

FROM HEAD COACH ANGELA KELLY

"We wanted to stay really well organized and hunt the ball. And, as always, we wanted to score quick and often. I thought we were able to do that. Credit to Lexi and Trinity for those early goals. That's their job on the team, so we were able to take the match by the horns — no pun intended — and went and got after it."

MATCH NOTES

With her first-half goal against West Virginia on Monday morning, Texas is now 4-0 all time in the Big 12 Conference Championships when junior forward Trinity Byars scores at least one goal.
With her assist on Trinity Byars' first-half goal, junior midfielder Lexi Missimo becomes just the third student-athlete in the Big 12's women's soccer history to be credited with 50-or-more career assists.
With their three goals on the day, Texas now has 62 goals on the season, the most by a team in the Big 12 since Texas A&M netted 76 throughout the 2011 campaign.
By finishing Monday's match with five points, Lexi Missimo now has 63 points on the season, the second most by a Big 12 student-athlete and the most since Nebraska's Kim Engesser had 61 throughout the 1998 season.
Lexi Missimo became the seventh different Texas Longhorn women's soccer student-athlete to record a brace in a Big 12 Conference Championship match, the first since Mackenzie McFarland accomplished the feat against Oklahoma on Oct. 31, 2021.
With Monday morning's result, Texas earned its first-ever win over West Virginia in the Big 12 Conference's postseason tournament.
- Prior to Monday's match, the Longhorns were 0-2-2 all time against the Mountaineers in the conference's postseason tournament.

UP NEXT

Texas (13-4-2) will now make its third consecutive appearance in the Big 12 Conference Championship semifinals — fourth in the last five completed Division I women's soccer seasons dating back to 2018 — and sixth overall under head coach Angela Kelly.
- The fourth-seeded Longhorns will play the top seed Texas Tech Red Raiders on Wednesday, Nov. 1 at 4:30 p.m.
  - The location of the match — either Austin or Round Rock — will be announced once finalized by the Big 12 Conference.

FOLLOW US

For the latest information on the team, follow @TexasSoccer on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. General athletic news can also be found at @TexasLonghorns on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.