The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Houston
No. 17 Soccer preview: Houston
08.14.2024 | Soccer
Texas set to open the 2024 season with high expectations, 11 returning starters
AUSTIN, Texas – Nearly nine months following the conclusion of one of the most historic seasons in program history, head coach Angela Kelly and her Texas women's soccer program return to the pitch as the Longhorns begin their 2024 regular season against Houston at 7 p.m. CT on Thursday, Aug. 15.
The two teams will square off for the second consecutive season after Texas beat Houston, 6-1, in Houston on Sunday, Oct. 15, when then-junior Lexi Missimo broke UT's single-season goals scored record when the midfielder was credited with her fifth brace of the 2023 campaign. Thursday night's match will mark the first time the Longhorns and Cougars have played a women's soccer match in consecutive seasons since Sept. 3, 2000 and Oct. 7, 2001.
Houston will be making its first trip to the Forty Acres to play a regular season women's soccer match since Aug. 28, 2009, when Texas won 2-0. Overall, the Longhorns hold a 3-1-0 record in women's soccer matches against the Cougars played in Austin. UT's lone loss at Mike A. Myers Stadium to UH occurred on Sept. 3, 2000, when the Longhorns fell, 3-2, in overtime.
TELEVISION: Lincoln Rose (play by play) and Jessica Stamp (analyst) will serve as the broadcast talent for the Longhorns' season-opening match against Houston that is scheduled to be broadcasted on SEC Network+.
KICKING OFF
- Thursday night's match will mark the third consecutive even-number year that Texas has played its season-opening match in Austin.
- 2024 vs. Houston
- 2022 vs. Lipscomb
- 2020 vs. Kansas
- 2018 (at Rice) was the last time the Longhorns opened an even-number season on the road.
- In total, Texas has opened an even-number season at home on 10 separate occasions dating back to the first in 1996.
- Highlighted by All-Americans Lexi Missimo and Trinity Byars, the Texas Longhorns return 97.1 percent of their team goals, 96.3 percent of team points, 94.6 percent of team assists and 12 of 13 goal scorers from the 2023 campaign.
- The duo of Missimo and Byars combined for 57 percent (122-214) of the program's season point total and 62.0 percent (44-70) of the program's season goal total in 2023.
- With Chloe Shimkin joining her sister, Jilly, on the Forty Acres this season, Texas became one of 40 Division I women's soccer programs to feature at least one pair of sisters on the squad.
- Per researched gathered by Missouri State's Hannah Mitchell, Maine and Lamar have three pairs of sisters, while eight other programs have two sets of sisters. Twenty-nine additional DI women's soccer programs have one pair of sisters.
- Additional, based on research by Saint Louis' Mickey Smith, Texas and the Billikens are the only Division I women's soccer program to feature two MAC Hermann Trophy semifinalists (top 15) on their 2024 roster.
- Saint Louis' Emily Gaebe and Lyndsey Heckel were selected in 2023 and 2022, respectively.
- Texas' Trinity Byars and Lexi Missimo were semifinalists in 2022 and 2023, respectively.
- Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024 will mark the first match action for EmJ Cox since Nov. 18, 2022 — a span of 637 days — after the center back missed all of the 2023 season rehabbing an injury suffered in March 2023.
- Cox has not played a regular season soccer match for Texas at Mike A. Myers Stadium since Friday, Nov. 11, 2022, when the Longhorns knocked off Texas A&M, 3-1, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, a span of 644 days.
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.
