No. 18 Soccer runs clean sheet streak to three consecutive matches

Sunday, September 3

Austin, TX

5 PM

University of Texas

5-1-0, 0-0-0

SMU

2-2-0, 0-0-0

SMU

Texas

No. 18 Soccer runs clean sheet streak to three consecutive matches

09.03.2023 | Soccer

Box Score

Sunday’s win over SMU marked the third straight shutout by Texas, longest streak since 2022 campaign

By: Chris Allen Brown

AUSTIN, TX – The University of Texas women's soccer program gave its goalkeeper Mia Justus a birthday present she'll remember as the Longhorn defense fenced in the SMU Mustang offense to take Sunday's contest, 6-0, to mark its third consecutive shutout and fourth overall on the season.

Texas held SMU to a season-low four shots, including just two on goal which was also a season low for the Mustangs. Sunday's performance marked the third consecutive match the Longhorns have limited an opponent's offense to five-or-few shots and three-or-fewer shots on goal.

On her 21st birthday, Justus earned the fifth start of her Longhorn career. And, as a result of her team's backline, the Lakewood, Ohio native and Florida State transfer did not have to make her first save of the day until nearly 30 minutes into the match and by that time, Texas had already accumulated a two-goal advantage. The Mustangs were credited with two more shots — neither on target — with under a minute left in the first half.

Thirty minutes after those pair of shots, Justus made her second save of the match on a shot by Leah Chancey at the 74-minute mark of the match, the lone shot attempt for the Mustangs during the entirety of the second 45-minute half.

FROM HEAD COACH ANGELA KELLY

"Lately, we've been challenging our players to create more than 25 shots per game and have 30 percent of those on the face. And tonight, we created 32 and 50 percent were on goal and to score six of those, that's about 37, almost 40 percent of the time we shoot on the face, we score. I thought that was fantastic. I was real excited for another win at home along with another clean sheet for Mia Justus on her birthday, that's big."

FROM JUNIOR GOALKEEPER MIA JUSTUS

"I couldn't have asked for anything better than to have a clean sheet on my birthday. Today, I thought we were compacted in the midfield, and I thought that was really the key to shutting (SMU) down and forcing them wide."

MATCH NOTES

Sunday evening's win over SMU marked the first time Texas has beaten the Mustangs since Aug. 26, 2005, when the Longhorns won, 1-0, in Austin.
With less than two minutes to play in the second half, sophomore Olivia Ahern scored her first career collegiate goal off assists by Trinity Byars and Liz Worden.
Jilly Shimkin's first-half penalty kick was the first for the two-year Longhorn student-athlete since converted an opportunity at West Virginia on Oct. 13, 2022.
For the first time under 12th-year head coach Angela Kelly, Texas converted multiple penalty kick opportunities in the same match after connecting on two attempts during the first half.
With her assist on Liz Worden's first-half goal, junior midfielder Lexi Missimo passed Kelly Wilson (2001-04) to become the program's new leader in career assists with 42.
- Missimo, who entered Sunday's match as the only active Division I women's soccer student-athlete with 40-or-more career assists, also tied Brittany Timko (Nebraska, 1996-99) for fourth on the Big 12 Conference's career assist list.
  - The Southlake native is now 10 assists shy of passing Nikki Wojtowicz (Oklahoma State, 2001-04) for the league's top spot.
Heading into Sunday afternoon's match, the SMU defense had not allowed an opponent to shoot more than 17 times in a match this season. The Texas offense had 17 shots in just the first half en route to finishing the match with 32 total shots.

UP NEXT

Texas (5-1-0) will look for its fourth consecutive clean sheet when the Longhorns square off with Stephen F. Austin (1-5-0) at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 7.

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