The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Forty Acres Insider: February 25
02.25.2025 | Forty Acres Insider
Important news happening in and around Texas Athletics compiled by Vice President and Athletics Director Chris Del Conte. [<a href="http://texassports.com/archives.aspx?path=forty_acres_insider">Forty Acres Insider archives</a>]
Longhorn Nation,
LIGHT THE TOWER times two my friends! New conference, same result as the championship tradition of our Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving programs continued with the triumphant raising of a pair of SEC Championship trophies on Saturday! That marks the 13th-straight year our Longhorns have swept that sport's conference crowns and continued a truly unbelievable streak of 46-straight conference titles for the men. Coach Bowman and Coach Capitani's squads brought the Texas Fight and led from start to finish in stampeding to the title. That was a couple of the highlights in a whole lot of winning that went down last weekend with Baseball (series sweep), Beach Volleyball (5-0), Softball (4-1) and Men's Tennis adding victories as well. That carried right on into a magnificent Monday with Coach Schaefer and No. 1 Women's Basketball's extending their win streak to 11-straight with a dominant 31-point victory at Georgia.
TEXAS TWO STEP 🤘
— Southeastern Conference (@SEC) February 23, 2025
2025 SEC Men's Swimming & Diving Champs
🏆 @TexasMSD
2025 SEC Women's Swimming & Diving Champs
🏆 @TexasWSD #SECSD x #SECChampionship pic.twitter.com/7ZQt9zPkzQ
It's such a great time to be a Longhorn and now as we head into the final week of February with another full slate of Longhorns' action ahead, what a perfect time it is to get together for our ANNUAL TOWN HALL. Come join us on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in the Touchdown Club inside Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium to celebrate the oh so many successes of the past year, talk about our plans for the present and future and share your thoughts on all the goings on in Texas Athletics. It's always one of my favorite nights of the year and I can't wait to see you there! Oh, and while I've got you, I'm sure y'all heard the news that we won't be playing a traditional spring football game this year. Rest assured, we certainly will still have a big 'ol Longhorn Party for some family fun, fellowship and fan appreciation. Our marketing folks are hard at work formulating all the plans for that so stay tuned for all the details, but plan on capping the spring season with a festive time on the Forty with Coach Sark and our football team!
be sure to join us tomorrow for the annual Texas Athletics Town Hall with @_delconte 🤘#HookEm pic.twitter.com/Kpy27CNKsr
— Texas Longhorns (@TexasLonghorns) February 25, 2025
But folks, before we get too far into the notes, we've got to give that sensational SWIMMING AND DIVING SWEEP A VICTORY LAP, round of applause and emphatic Hook 'Em, Horns! Coach Bowman and Coach Capitani sure did have our Horns ready to make a big-time splash in Athens, Ga. last week! It was all Longhorns, all the time as the medal stand welcomed a steady flow of Burnt Orange and White. Our Longhorns claimed 11 individual victories (7 women/4 men) and the men (21) and women (20) combined to produce 41 top-three finishers. Emma Stricklin led the stampede with her record-breaking week that earned her Women's Swimmer of the Meet accolades. Talk about utter domination, Emma made waves with three individual event titles (200 IM, 100 & 200 butterfly) and swam the opening leg on the victorious 200 medley relay. Rex Maurer touched first in the 500 free and 400 IM, got a relay silver and a pair of individual bronzes to claim the Commissioner's Trophy as the high scorer of the meet. With SEC Championships secured, now it's on to nationals with NCAA Zone Diving on March 10-12 for our No. 1-ranked men and No. 2-ranked women in a couple weeks in Iowa City followed by the NCAA Championships for the women on March 20-23 and March 26-29 for the men in Federal Way, Wash.
we'll take both of those, thank you @SEC 🤘#HookEm pic.twitter.com/iL4gpWoQGZ
— Texas Longhorns (@TexasLonghorns) February 23, 2025
Coach Schaefer and Women's Basketball climbed to NUMBER ONE in The AP poll for the first time in 21 years on Monday and continued to charge ahead in its quest for a championship. Monday night's 57-26 victory at Georgia improved our record to 13-1 in the SEC and 27-2 overall. It marked our Horns' 11th-straight win and sixth in-a-row on the road. That sends us to the home stretch with two more games left before heading to the SEC Tournament in Greenville, S.C. (March 5-9). Coach Vic will be in his old stomping grounds at Mississippi State on Thursday (6:30 p.m. CT/SEC Network+) taking on the Bulldogs before returning home for Sunday's regular season finale and Senior Day at Moody Center with Florida in town (1 p.m. CT/SEC Network). We need all hands-on deck for that one and another packed house to show our appreciation for this team and these seniors. And y'all know what time it is, it's the annual 10k for 10k pledge from Coach (if 10,000 fans attend the game, he'll donate $10,000 to the Neighborhood Longhorns Program). You heard our guy KD, so let's do this!
it's that time of year again 🤘#HookEm pic.twitter.com/uF4uL87vVF
— Texas Women's Basketball (@TexasWBB) February 20, 2025
It was far from a weekend of sun and fun, but Coach Schloss and No. 16 Baseball (and you incredibly loyal fans that cheered them on) WEATHERED THE STORM in our home-opening series sweep at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. Our home opener against Houston last Tuesday was cancelled and we wound up juggling times to get three games in against Dartmouth from Friday to Sunday. Through it all our Horns overcame, winning all three games to take a five-game win streak into tonight's game at the Disch versus UIW (6:30 p.m. CT/SEC Network+). We'll hit the road after that one, traveling to Vegas for the Las Vegas Classic with a series of games against Washington (Friday/8 p.m. CT), Texas Tech (Saturday/6 p.m. CT) and Illinois (Sunday/1 p.m. CT).
home sweep home 🧹🏡#HookEm pic.twitter.com/4Dnu786LP3
— Texas Baseball (@TexasBaseball) February 23, 2025
Speaking of sweeps, No. 4 MEN'S TENNIS OPENED SEC PLAY with one of their own over Vanderbilt, 7-0, at the Weller Indoor Tennis Center on Saturday. They followed that up with a 6-1 victory over Ole Miss on Monday at the Texas Tennis Center and now travel to Florida on Sunday (11 a.m. CT) looking to keep their perfect conference record intact. Coach Joffe and No. 11 Women's Tennis knocked off TCU in Fort Worth on Thursday before dropping a heartbreaker at home in a Cotton Holdings Lone Star Showdown matchup against No. 6 Texas A&M on Sunday, 4-3. We've got a pair of home conference contests this week in a Red River Rivalry matchup versus No. 12 Oklahoma on Friday (2 p.m. CT) and another longtime rival Arkansas on Sunday (Noon CT).
It was a perfect start to the season for Coach Metzger and No. 15 Beach Volleyball who posted five straight wins (dropping just one game in those five matches, winning 22 of 23 games to boot!) at the Third Coast College Classic in Houston. Now our Horns will bring the show to the ATX hosting the Longhorn Invitational Friday and Saturday just north of campus at the Wright-Whitaker Sports Complex. What a fast-paced, fun game it is, so come on out and support our newest Longhorn sports program. WE'LL SEE YOU AT THE BEACH!
Coach White and No. 1 Softball headed west last week where they won four of five games, including a thrilling extra innings road victory over No. 11 Arizona, 8-4. At 15-1 on the season already, it's back to Red & Charline McCombs Field for five more games this weekend with the Longhorn Invitational beginning Friday afternoon.
Coach Terry and Men's Basketball will look to bounce back from a tough road loss at South Carolina when they travel to Fayetteville to face Arkansas on Wednesday (8 p.m. CT/ESPN2). That sets up a big Saturday home game against Georgia (7 p.m. CT/ESPN2). We're into the stretch run with a pair of games next week, capped off by a Red River Rivalry battle against Oklahoma on Senior Day on Saturday, March 8 (7 p.m. CT/SEC Network) before heading to the SEC Tournament beginning March 12 in Nashville.
Coach Flo and Men's and Women's Track and Field will be competing for SEC titles this week in College Station, which will be the home for the league's indoor championship meet.
Hey, while I've got you, here's to our guy Craig Way, the longtime "Voice of the Longhorns." He was tabbed this year's recipient of the prestigious National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Russell D. Anderson/Wilbur Snypp Award for his national contributions to college baseball. That makes it a pair of honors for our outstanding Longhorn Radio Network broadcast team this year with Roger Wallace being voted Texas Sportscaster of the Year by the National Sports Media Association (NSMA) last month for his work with our radio network and as sports director at KXAN-TV. Kudos to a pair of incredible broadcasters who pour their hearts into covering Texas Athletics and sharing the stories of our outstanding student-athletes. We appreciate them so much!
🗣️ Light the Tower orange@Hornvoice was named the 50th recipient of the @NCBWA Russell D. Anderson/Wilbur Snypp Award!#HookEm pic.twitter.com/rGglwDsvBG
— Texas Baseball (@TexasBaseball) February 21, 2025
And more great news, our newest sport on the Forty Acres, Beach Volleyball, got some of that last week. We love when y'all come out and cheer on our squads in person, but we know sometimes you can't, so we love to be able to bring the exciting action to you, too! What a fantastic exposure opportunity it is for Coach Metzger and our Beach Volleyball program that our friends at Longhorn Sports Properties have reached an agreement with KXAN-TV to broadcast our 11 home matches this season locally on KBVO-TV. They will also be streamed worldwide on LHN so all eyes will be on the Longhorns' Beach Volleyball squad!
all eyes on Texas 👀📺read more at the link below for match dates & times and how to access LHN and KBVO on your devices🤘https://t.co/Ccolezgl5E#HookEm pic.twitter.com/z8lmJA1B5U
— Texas Beach Volleyball (@TexasBeachVB) February 20, 2025
One last thing folks, sending our best to our all-time program RECORD 14 Longhorns at this week's NFL Combine!
Teaming up with Learfield to enhance our NIL opportunities for student-athletes
We have some exciting news to share as we continue to remain on the cutting edge in the ever-changing space of college athletics. Y'all know we're going to stay at the forefront of the constantly evolving Name, Image and Likeness world for all of our student-athletes. With that in mind, we've teamed up with our partners at Learfield's Longhorns Sports Properties to add three new leadership positions to do just that. You can read all the details here but suffice to say, this is a joint effort with our partners at LSP that will continue to guarantee our department is a leader in the NIL space!
Men's Basketball enters crucial final four games of regular season
With the calendar flipping to March later this week, the eyes of the nation are on college basketball as teams make their push to earn a berth into the upcoming NCAA Tournament. RT and our guys did not get the result they were hoping for last Saturday at South Carolina, but they will look to pick up a much-needed road win at Arkansas on Wednesday (8 p.m. CT/ESPN2). Then we need Longhorn Nation and The Corral to once again pack The Mood and give our team a huge homecourt advantage on Saturday when we take the court against Georgia (7 p.m. CT/ESPN2). There are just four games remaining in the regular season, and each and every contest has huge NCAA Tournament implications, so let's do our part to support our guys down the home stretch!
the brotherhood is forever 🤘#HookEm pic.twitter.com/LbjkN7TDMp
— Texas Men's Basketball (@TexasMBB) February 20, 2025
Women's Basketball is the NUMBER ONE team in the land!
How about Coach Vic and our ladies laying claim to the No. 1 spot in Monday's AP poll! The Longhorns took that new ranking to the court last night and held Georgia to 10 points in the second half and 26 for the game in a 57-26 victory in Athens. Taylor Jones was a force inside as she notched her seventh double-double of the season with 17 points and 16 rebounds. Rori Harmon became the first player in our program's history to reach 1,200 points and 600 assists. The Longhorns improved to an impressive 9-2 on the road this season showing that Texas Fight! Coach Vic and our team are back on the road for a contest at Mississippi State on Thursday (6:30 p.m. CT/SEC Network+). Longhorn Nation, make your plans now to come out Sunday and pack The Mood for our final home game of the regular season against Florida (1 p.m. CT/SEC Network).
there's a new number one 😍🤘#HookEm pic.twitter.com/HieUwORA8G
— Texas Women's Basketball (@TexasWBB) February 24, 2025
take a look at last night's win over the Lady Bulldogs 📺🤘#HookEm pic.twitter.com/J4JIVSYojD
— Texas Women's Basketball (@TexasWBB) February 25, 2025
Baseball earns sweep in home-opening weekend series
Coach Schloss and the guys kept the winning ways rolling in Austin over the weekend, as the Longhorns opened their home schedule with a three-game sweep over Dartmouth. After a pair of one-run wins in sub-40-degree temperatures, Texas cruised to a 4-1 victory to cap off the sweep on a picture-perfect Sunday. A special shoutout to all the fans that showed support all weekend long at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. We got an up-close look at the impact new pitching coach Max Weiner is making, as his staff held the Big Green to only six runs on 15 hits and a .167 batting average over the three-game series. Offensively, second baseman Ethan Mendoza went 3-for-6 with a homer and two RBI. Seven different players drove in a run, as Texas extended its winning streak to five. Coach Schloss and the guys close out their four-game homestand later today (6:30 p.m. CT/SEC Network+) against Incarnate Word at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. The Longhorns then travel to Sin City for the Las Vegas Classic and face Washington on Friday (8 p.m. CT/D1Baseball), Texas Tech on Saturday (6 p.m. CT/D1Baseball) and Illinois on Sunday (1 p.m. CT/D1Baseball).
broke out the brooms 🤘#HookEm pic.twitter.com/SNR9CwPbt5
— Texas Baseball (@TexasBaseball) February 23, 2025
Softball improves to 15-1 on the season!
Playing in its fifth different city over the first three weeks of the season, Coach White and our ladies added four wins to move our record to 15-1 following last weekend's Hillenbrand Invitational in Tucson. The ball was jumping in the desert to the tune of EIGHT long balls off Longhorn bats to push our season total to 22 through the first 16 games of the year. None of the homers were bigger than Kayden Henry blasting a three-run shot in the top of the eighth to seal the 8-4 win over No. 13/11 Arizona on Saturday night. The victory over the tourney host Wildcats came after back-to-back five-inning run-rule wins over Colorado State (18-2) and UC Davis (12-0). Bouncing back from a heart-breaking loss to No. 18/20 Stanford to begin the weekend, the Longhorns closed out the trip with another five-inning, run-rule victory over Colorado State (10-2) on Sunday. Coach White and the team are back at home this weekend at Red & Charline McCombs Field for the Longhorn Invitational. The action starts on Friday when Texas takes on USF (4 p.m. CT/SEC Network+) and Abilene Christian (6:30 p.m. CT/SEC Network+). Just a single game is slated on Saturday against New Mexico State (1:30 p.m. CT/SEC Network+), before we round out the five-game slate on Sunday against USF (12:30 p.m. CT/SEC Network+) and Alabama A&M (3 p.m. CT/SEC Network).
headin' home with a 15th win 🤘#HookEm | @TexasLonghorns pic.twitter.com/In62UT9QOE
— Texas Softball (@TexasSoftball) February 23, 2025
Men's Swim and Dive claims 46th-STRAIGHT conference crown!
All we do is win! Coach Bowman's guys took care of business in the program's inaugural SEC Championship meet last week in Athens, Ga. The Horns have now won 46-STRAIGHT conference championships. Yep, you read that right. That's 46 conference championships in a row and the 67th overall in program history! Talk about a dynasty. Texas totaled 1,474.5 points to snap Florida's 12-year SEC title streak. Sophomore Rex Maurer took home the SEC Commissioner's Cup Trophy after scoring the highest point total at the meet with 91 points, wow! Our top-ranked men won 36 total medals (four gold, 10 silver and 22 bronze) to put a bow on the week.
mission accomplished🥇#HookEm pic.twitter.com/MaqOwIhtE7
— Texas Men's Swimming & Diving (@TexasMSD) February 24, 2025
Women's Swim and Dive earns 13th-straight league title!
New conference, same result! Coach Capitani's squad cruised to its 13th-consecutive conference title, all during her time here on the Forty Acres. The Longhorns dismantled their competition throughout the week, finishing 271 points ahead of second-place Tennessee, as the Horns recorded 1,450 points, the second-most in SEC history! Texas has now claimed 37 overall conference championships between the Southwest Conference, Big 12 and now SEC. Senior Emma Sticklen shared the SEC Commissioner's Cup Trophy after tying for the highest individual point total with 96. Your Horns brought home 32 total medals, including 13 gold. Now how's that for hardware?!
dominance from start to finish🥇#HookEm pic.twitter.com/0IaFeQozYT
— Texas Women's Swimming & Diving (@TexasWSD) February 24, 2025
Women's Golf finishes fourth at Moon Golf Invitational
Our No. 6 Women's Golf team finished in fourth place at the Moon Golf Invitational in Melbourne, Fla. last week. Lauren Kim continued her strong play as she finished in third place at 4-under-par for the tournament. Lauren's final round of 3-under 69 was her fifth round in the 60s this season. Farah O'Keefe caught fire and made eight birdies in the final round on the way to a 5-under 67 and placed in a tie for 10th on the individual leaderboard. Farah has finished in the top-10 in five straight tournaments! Our Longhorns travel to Hilton Head, S.C. on March 3-5 (Monday-Wednesday) for the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate. Be sure to mark your calendars for March 17-18 as we once again host the Betsy Rawls Invitational at the UT Golf Club!
LAUREN ON THE LEADERBOARD 👏
— Texas Women's Golf (@TexasWGolf) February 18, 2025
in today's final round Lauren Kim carded 3-under 69 to cement a third place finish. 🤘#HookEm pic.twitter.com/X64MDsc4mq
Beach Volleyball posts 5-0 mark in season-opening weekend!
In a cold and rainy weekend in Houston, our No. 15 Beach Volleyball team went 5-0 in the first tournament of the season. Coach Metzger and our ladies took care of business sweeping four of their five opponents at the Third Coast College Classic. The Longhorns were led by Ava Patton and Kylie Wickley who went 5-0 on the weekend as a pair. The Longhorn duo never dropped a set over the weekend and held all of their opponents to 18 points or less in every game. The pair won two matches at No. 3 and three at No. 4. In the win against Sam Houston, the pair only allowed nine total points in two sets. Talk about Texas Tough!
wake up, win, repeat 😉🤘#HookEm pic.twitter.com/On4aXVjJ0d
— Texas Beach Volleyball (@TexasBeachVB) February 23, 2025
Hook 'Em Horns,
P.S. — Headed for that Number One spot!
With Women's Basketball taking over the top spot in The AP Poll this week, our @TexasLonghorns have now had 6️⃣ different programs (@TexasWBB, @TexasFootball, @TexasSoftball, @TexasMSD, @TexasMTN & @TexasVolleyball) reach No. 1 in the polls at some point in the 2024-25 season🤘🏻 https://t.co/L7yMPidwL5
— John Bianco (@UT_Bianco) February 25, 2025
P.S. — Best Man for the Best Job in America!
No place better to be 🤘@CoachSark x @UpAndAdamsShow
— Texas Football (@TexasFootball) February 20, 2025
pic.twitter.com/yilQ5OTZDs
P.S. — Watching Coach Sark build this culture has been such a joy!
.@CoachSark on why his "culture of vulnerability" has been so effective at Texas 📈🙌🔊
— Up & Adams (@UpAndAdamsShow) February 20, 2025
"I really think our culture has WON us some games." @TexasFootball @heykayadams | #HookEm pic.twitter.com/fRdL7ERLpC
P.S. — All Eyes on Texas!
TWO of our Longhorns last 3 games — both top-5 wins at Moody Center — drew more than 1 million viewers, peaking at a combined total of 3.6 million vs South Carolina (1.3) and LSU (2.3). Saturday's win over LSU was the 4th most-watched Women's College BB game in ESPN's history‼️🤘🏼 https://t.co/yT3NW3HCP6
— John Bianco (@UT_Bianco) February 19, 2025
P.S. — This is must-see TV, the Pride and Winning Tradition of The University of Texas right here!
In this week's episode of 94 Feet with Vic Schaefer, @aa1iyahM sits down with Retha Swindell and Coach Rodney Page 🤘#HookEm pic.twitter.com/RCUxum0lnE
— Longhorn Network (@LonghornNetwork) February 22, 2025
P.S. — Our guy KD! So great having you on the Forty again my friend!
had to come out and support @KDTrey5 🤘#HookEm | @Suns pic.twitter.com/KPXlG7IvEw
— Texas Women's Basketball (@TexasWBB) February 21, 2025
P.S. — This warms my heart!
this is what it's all about 🫶#HookEm | @shrinershosp pic.twitter.com/g4nYonPKjE
— Texas Baseball (@TexasBaseball) February 20, 2025
P.S — Congrats to the X-Man, Chiefs Rookie of the Year! Just getting started my friend!!
No. 1 for a reason.
— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) February 21, 2025
Congratulations on winning this year's Mack Lee Hill Rookie of the Year Award @XavierWorthy! pic.twitter.com/JP6goPFn4U
P.S. — A picture is worth a thousand words!
the pic says it all 🤘#HookEm | @henry_kayden pic.twitter.com/gFkVgGXNvc
— Texas Softball (@TexasSoftball) February 23, 2025
HEADLINES:
Friday Night Lights star inspiring students as TXHSFB coach (Dave Campbell's Texas Football)
Video: Longhorn Weekly with Rodney Terry (Feb. 20)
No. 3 Men's Tennis' Legout named SEC Men's Tennis Athlete of the Week
Women's Basketball's Vic Schaefer named to Naismith Coach of the Year watch list
Video: Men's Basketball media availability (Feb. 18)