Soccer rallies with two second-half goals to keep season alive

Friday, November 17

Tallahassee, FL

1 PM

University of Texas

17-4-2, 6-3-1

Wisconsin

14-5-4, 7-2-1

Texas

Wisconsin

Photo by: Phil Kelly

Soccer rallies with two second-half goals to keep season alive

11.17.2023 | Soccer

Box Score

Texas matches program history by advancing to the third round of the NCAA Tournament

By: Chris Allen Brown

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – For the first time since the 2017 season, The University of Texas women's soccer program advanced to the third round of the NCAA Tournament — matching the deepest tournament run in program history — following a 2-1 victory over No. 12 Wisconsin on Friday, Nov. 17.

Touted as one of the best defensive squads in the Big 10 Conference, Wisconsin (14-5-4) contained Texas' high-octane offense scoreless throughout the first 45 minutes of Friday's match, becoming the first team since No. 4 Texas Tech on Wednesday, Nov. 1 to do so.

But less than seven minutes into the second half, Trinity Byars and Lexi Missimo had consecutive passes that found Ashlyn Miller in the right-corner of the 18-yard box, where the junior flicked the ball over the out-stretched Wisconsin goalkeeper and deposited the ball into the back of the net.

The play not only tied the match at 1-1 — after the Badgers took a 1-0 lead into halftime on a 38-minute goal by Riley Philbin — but also marked the 20th assist on the season for Missimo, making her the first women's soccer student-athlete in the Big 12 Conference's history with a 20-goal, 20-assist season. The assist also tied the junior midfielder with Oklahoma State's Nikki Wojtowicz (2001-04) for the top spot on the league's career assist leaderboard.

Sixteen minutes later, Missimo recorded her 26th goal on the season, which tied her with Nebraska's Eleanor Dale for the nation's lead heading into the Cornhuskers' match against Tennessee later Friday evening. The goal was also the 44th of Missimo's career, tying her with Kelly Wilson (2001-04) for third on the program's career goals list and just three back of tying Trinity Byars (2021-P) for the top spot.

FROM HEAD COACH ANGELA KELLY

"I would like to congratulation Wisconsin on a tremendous season. That's a quality team. Obviously, it was a tail of two halves, and I thought they were very well organized. They have some weapons up top, and I thought their midfielders played extremely well today."

"I'm really proud of our squad and how they battled. They were extremely coachable at halftime and came out and executed extremely well. We had 11 shots with four on goal, that's close to 30 percent and that's what the rule of thumb is. Then you have four shots on goal and two went into the back of the net, that's close to 50 percent and that's a tremendous goal-per-shot ratio. I'm just really proud of the entire squad today."

MATCH NOTES

By earning the victory in goal on Friday afternoon, first-year Longhorn Mia Justus became the first student-athlete in program history to be credited with 17 wins as a goalkeeper in a single season.
- Justus entered Friday's match against Wisconsin tied with Dianna Pfenninger (2006, 2007) for the top spot with 16 wins.
By playing all 90 minutes of Friday's match against Wisconsin, Mia Justus pushed her minutes played total this season to 1,997:13, which moves the Ohio native to sixth on the program's single-season minutes played by a goalkeeper list.
- If Justus plays all 90 minutes of Texas' next match, she'll not only become just the sixth goalkeeper in program history to play 2,000-or-more minutes in a single season but also move into fourth place on the program's single-season list.
With her second-half goal, Lexi Missimo has now been credited with nine game-winning goals this season, passing Kelsey Carpenter's single-season record (8) set throughout the 2006 season.
- The record is the sixth single-season program record broken by Missimo this season.
With her match-tying goal during the second half, Ashlyn Miller joined Trinity Byars as the only active Texas women's soccer student-athletes to score in multiple NCAA Tournaments.
- Both Byars and Miller scored one goal in last season's first-round match against Texas A&M and have also scored against Lamar and Wisconsin, respectively.
By appearing in Friday night's match, defender Carly Montgomery has now played 23 matches throughout the 2023, becoming the first Longhorn women's soccer freshman student-athlete under 12-year head coach Angela Kelly to reach that plateau.

UP NEXT

With the win, Texas (17-4-2) advances to the Round of 16 in the NCAA Division I Women's Championship and will play either No. 1 Florida State (17-0-1) or Texas A&M (10-7-4) in Tallahassee, Fla., at 4:30 p.m. CT / 5:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, Nov. 19.

FOLLOW US

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