The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
No. 15 Soccer recognized in Top Drawer Soccer preseason awards, player rankings
08.16.2023 | Soccer
The Texas Longhorn women’s soccer program continues to earn preseason honors prior to first regular match
AUSTIN, TX – On Wednesday, the Top Drawer Soccer publication recognized a trio of Texas Longhorn women's soccer student-athletes in its 2023 Women's Division I Preseason Awards, Women's College Soccer Player Rankings and Women's Division I Preseason Top 25 poll.
Trinity Byars, who was a unanimous preseason All-Big 12 selection earlier this month, was selected to the Top Drawer Soccer Preseason XI First Team at forward. Lexi Missimo, who joined Byars as a unanimous selection on the preseason All-Big 12 team, was chosen to the preseason best XI second team. The pair of Longhorns were the only women's soccer student-athletes in the Big 12 Conference to be selected to either the first or second team. League newcomer BYU had a pair of student-athletes — Brecken Mozingo, midfielder and Laveni Vaka, defender — were both appointed to the third team.
Additionally, the publication ranked Byars (No. 2), Missimo (No. 16) and Jilly Shimkin (No. 75) among the Women's College Soccer Player Rankings entering the 2023 regular season. Byars and Missimo are the two highest ranked student-athletes, according to the publication, in the Big 12 Conference and only ones ranked within the top 25. Shimkin's inclusion gives Texas three student-athletes ranked inside the top 75, one shy of BYU for the most among Big 12 women's soccer programs.
Coming off its six-goal victory over Texas A&M – Corpus Christi in an exhibition match on Saturday evening, the publication ranked the Texas Longhorn women's soccer program No. 13 in its preseason poll on Tuesday evening.
UP NEXT
Texas will open its 2023 regular season schedule on Thursday, August 17, when the Longhorns take the pitch at George Allen Field to square off against Long Beach State at 7 p.m. PT / 9 p.m. CT on ESPN+.
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.
