Forty Acres Insider: April 22

Chris Del Conte head shot 2025

Longhorn Nation,

Well, how do you do SEC Championship Trophy NUMBER SIX! You can Light the Tower Orange for Coach Berque and No. 4 Men's Tennis as they completed the sweep by winning the SEC regular season championship and then the conference tournament title on Sunday. That was one of many thrills of a victory-filled weekend as No. 1 Baseball swept a series over No. 8 Auburn, No. 2/3 Softball took a series from No. 9 LSU with a pair of electrifying walk-off wins, and No. 7 Beach Volleyball closed out the regular season with another top-20 win and historic senior day. We're right back at it, folks, with a jam-packed week of glorious Longhorn sports action starting with Baseball tonight at Texas State (6 p.m. CT/ESPN+) and Softball hitting the road to face Big 12 opponent and top-25-ranked Oklahoma State on Wednesday (7 p.m. CT/ESPNU). That just gets the stampede rumbling as No. 3 Men's Golf is in Georgia for the SEC Championship, Beach Volleyball heads to Baton Rouge for the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association (CCSA) Championship Tourney, Baseball's much-anticipated Cotton Holdings Lone Star Showdown series with Texas A&M at UFCU Disch-Falk Field, Softball's Red River Rivalry at Oklahoma, No. 1 Rowing and Track and Field are both hosting invitational events, and our fabulous Football Fan Day are all on the horizon. And of course, there's the NFL Draft in Green Bay from Thursday-Saturday for what promises to be another historic run of Longhorns reaching a lifelong dream. What a wonderful time it is to be a Longhorn, we can't wait to see you on the Forty this week, so let's get ready to get those Horns Up and Hook 'Em my friends!

Your 2025 @SEC Tournament Champs! #HookEm 🤘🎾 pic.twitter.com/FH9kJOslwB
— Texas Men's Tennis (@TexasMTN) April 20, 2025

Not so fast, my friends! We've got plenty to look forward to, but we absolutely must first take some time to celebrate another phenomenal week for the Burnt Orange & White! Despite battling injuries and adversity, Men's Tennis rolled through three opponents including two top-25 foes to secure the SEC Tournament Championship. They handled their business on Sunday for a 4-1 win over South Carolina and raised that SEC Tourney Title trophy high! With Men's Tennis' sweep of the league's regular season and tourney titles, that's our sixth SEC Championship trophy this season, joining Women's Basketball, Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving, and Soccer (tournament). We've got lots more to compete for, but what a year it has been. That sure does give you a whole lot to brag about around the ol' water cooler this week so get those Horns Up!

Today's @TexasMTN SEC Tourney Championship makes it a sweep of the conference regular season and postseason titles for our Longhorns and is our 6️⃣th SEC Championship trophy this year, joining @TexasWBB, @TexasMSD,@TexasWSD and @TexasSoccer🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 pic.twitter.com/d8UFbOIaNh
— John Bianco (@UT_Bianco) April 20, 2025

Coach Schloss and our No. 1-ranked Longhorns put on a show again at UFCU Disch-Falk Field last weekend. With y'all chargin' the place up with packed houses, choruses of Texas Fight and Hook 'Em Horns aplenty, our squad posted an EMPHATIC SERIES SWEEP of No. 8 Auburn. It was total domination in the final two games, outscoring the Tigers, 22-5, in those contests, including a 14-2 walk-off run-rule win on a Kimble Schuessler long ball in Saturday's series finale. My man Kimble had himself a day, going 3-for-5 with two homers and eight RBI! And how about our freshman phenom and two-sport star Jonah Williams with that sensational debut, starting the final two games of the series and going 5-for-7 at the plate with three RBI, a stolen base and scoring two runs?! The best part is he's just getting started. That makes it 6-for-6 in series wins this season, including four by sweep and three of them over top-10 opponents. We're 16-2 and atop the SEC standings, 33-5 overall, and we head down I-35 to play at Texas State later tonight. That sets up an epic series with our rivals from the east in town from Friday-Sunday and the renewal of our long-time rivalry in a conference game once again. Can't wait to see y'all at the yard, bringin' the juice and firin' up the Disch again this week!

best fans in college baseball 🤝#HookEm pic.twitter.com/MumkSTxsBJ
— Texas Baseball (@TexasBaseball) April 18, 2025

Meanwhile, Coach White and No. 2/3 Softball were across Comal with a packed house cheering us to an SEC series victory, as well, taking two of three from No. 9 LSU. BOTH WINS CAME IN THRILLING WALK-OFF FASHION with the spectacular Reese Atwood's grand slam to end Thursday night's 7-3 victory, and a gritty, gutsy comeback on Sunday capped by the speedy Mia Scott legging out an infield single and fellow speedster Kayden Henry sprinting to the plate for a 6-5 win. Talk about Texas Fight, it was on full display at McCombs Field last week! We'll take to the road this week and face long-time Big 12 opponent No. 23 Oklahoma State on Wednesday before we make our way to Norman for a Red River Rivalry at No. 3/4 Oklahoma this weekend. That's always an important one, but will be ratcheted up even higher as it's a critical series in a closely contested SEC race on the home stretch of the regular season.

y'all fueled that Texas Fight 🤘#HookEm pic.twitter.com/tkDKeh7jPQ
— Texas Softball (@TexasSoftball) April 18, 2025

Last week was a solid one for Coach Ianello and No. 6 Women's Golf, too, advancing to match play at the SEC Championship with sophomore sensation Farah O'Keefe finishing as the individual runner-up. Next up will be the NCAA Regionals from May 5-7. No. 14 Women's Tennis advanced to the SEC Tourney quarterfinals, as well, and now will await an NCAA Tournament bid which begins with first-round play on May 2.

And as we look ahead, in addition to the big-time Baseball and Softball conference matchups, the SEC Men's Golf Championship begins Wednesday in Saint Simons Island, Ga., Track and Field has the Texas Invitational at Mike A. Myers Stadium, and No. 1 Rowing will host a loaded field in its final tune-up this week with the Longhorn Invite on Friday and Saturday. It will be a strong field and is such a fun sport to watch, so mark those calendars, set your alarms, get some coffee and kickoff off a wall-to-wall Longhorn Day on Saturday with us at Lake Walter E. Long. And we've got Football Fan Day right after that at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium!

see y'all on the Forty 🤘#HookEm | @SeatGeek pic.twitter.com/ZrfZMiU8Qy
— Texas Longhorns (@TexasLonghorns) April 21, 2025

Hey, and we've got some future schedule news, too! If you didn't see the announcement Monday, there's going to be a HISTORIC AND EPIC VOLLEYBALL MATCH coming in September. It will be a clash of two titans of the sport in the first-ever volleyball match at Moody Center as Coach Elliott and our Longhorns host our national rival Stanford on Sunday, September 7. The Mood will be lit for this one and what a great opportunity to shine a huge spotlight on a great sport, so get your tickets now and let's pack the house!

There's plenty of news and nuggets on athletics and student-athlete excellence in this week's Forty Acres Insider, but I want to take a moment to share this tremendous feature on our academic services. Success in the classroom is of the highest priority with all of us in Texas Athletics, and with graduation right around the corner, here's to our student-athletes, our academic services staff and the amazing UFCU Student-Athlete Academic Center. All are just phenomenal, and a plethora of our student-athletes will be donning caps & gowns very soon so Horns Up to that!

Congrats to our Academic MVPs!

Before we get to all the details for Saturday's Fan Day and the team notes, I need to send a big-time Hook 'Em to our 17 student-athletes who were named Academic MVPs for their respective teams yesterday. Our outstanding student services staff recognized one undergraduate upperclassman for each of our sports teams. All of the individuals selected have a minimum of 60 hours of academic credits with the highest cumulative GPA on their respective team and have spent at least one full academic year here on the Forty Acres. Let's all give a round of applause to the following Academic MVPs: Luke Harrison (Baseball, Sport Management), Preston Clark (Men's Basketball, Management), Trey Moore (Football, Physical Culture and Sports), Christiaan Maas (Men's Golf, Sport Management), Coby Carrozza (Men's Swimming & Diving, Advertising), Pierre-Yves Bailly (Men's Tennis, Economics), Nathanael Berhane (Men's Cross Country, Electrical and Computer Engineering Honors), Ndjakalenga Mwenentanda (Women's Basketball, Psychology), Ava Patton (Beach Volleyball, Management), Angela Heo (Women's Golf, Sport Management), Alex Taylor (Rowing, Applied Movement Science), EmJ Cox (Soccer, Human Dimensions of Organizations), Viviana Martinez (Softball, Applied Movement Science), Vivian Ovrootsky (Women's Tennis, Sport Management), Eva Jess (Women's Cross Country, Nutrition), Meredith Adams (Women's Track & Field, Exercise Science) and Ella Swindle (Volleyball, Advertising).

Football Fan Day this Saturday with FREE Admission!

Saturday will be an electric day on the Forty Acres as we host Football Fan Day at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Admission is F-R-E-E and we've got a full day of burnt orange and white fun planned for the entire family. The annual Team Shop Fire Sale kicks off the day's festivities at 9 a.m., and our partners at the Texas Longhorns Official Team Shop have the largest collection of product ever assembled for this year's sale. Fans interested in lining up for the Fire Sale can do so outside Gate 28D on the east side of the stadium.

We'll ramp things up at 10 a.m. with the Texas Football Street Fest outside the north end of the stadium on DeLoss Dodds Way. This will feature some of our favorite activations from Texas Football gameday's including a ferris wheel, midway slide, climbing wall, inflatables, interactive activities and more! You'll also find the Golden Hat and Cotton Holdings Lone Star Showdown trophies for photo ops. Also at 10 a.m., we'll open up Gates 8, 14, 16 and 25 for fans to come down to the field for photo ops and interactive activities for kids ages 12 and under. Bevo XV, Smokey the Cannon, Texas Cheer, Texas Pom, and Hook `Em will be down on the field starting at Noon.

For team autographs, please line up at either Gate 8 or Gate 25 as we'll have two separate autograph lines going in order to accommodate as many Longhorns fans as possible. Official 2025 football posters will be provided for the autograph session and will also be available inside the Frank Denius Family University of Texas Athletics Hall of Fame for fans not participating in autographs. Coach Sark will be on the south end of the field for photo ops with the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl trophy. It's going to be an incredible time, and I can't wait to see y'all back at DKR!

Football Fan Day Timeline – April 26

8 a.m. – Complimentary parking courtesy of Texas Athletics begins in San Jacinto Garage (prior to 2 p.m.) and Manor Garage (prior to Noon)
9 a.m. – Team Shop Fire Sale opens (enter Gate 28D on the east side of DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium)
10 a.m. – Texas Football Street Fest opens on DeLoss Dodds Way with rides, interactive activities, food trucks, and more!
10 a.m. – Gates 8, 14, 16, and 25 open*
Noon-2 p.m. – Photo ops with Bevo XV, Smokey the Cannon, Texas Cheer, Texas Pom, and Hook `Em on the field
12:15 p.m. – Football Player Autographs and Photo Ops with Coach Sark begin
2 p.m. – Event ends

*Fans participating in autographs must line up in the designated autograph queue lines at Gate 8 OR Gate 25. 2025 football posters will be provided for autographs; no outside items will be allowed.

No. 1 Baseball continues to roll as the top team in the land!

That winning feeling never gets old! Coach Schloss and the guys won their SIXTH-STRAIGHT SEC series, sweeping No. 8 Auburn in front of a packed house at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. The Horns are 33-5 overall and sitting atop the SEC standings with a 16-2 record. Schloss' crew kicked off the three-game set with some Texas Fight, rallying for a 3-2 victory over the Tigers on Thursday. First baseman Kimble Schuessler delivered the go-ahead homer in the seventh, while the bullpen shut down Auburn with 6 1/3 scoreless innings. Texas clinched the series the very next day, sparked by two-sport standout Jonah Williams. Williams became the first Longhorn with three RBI in their first career start in more than seven years! Overall, our guys tallied eight two-out hits in Friday's 8-3 win. The Horns capped off the sweep in style, run-ruling the Tigers 14-2 in seven innings on Saturday. Once again, it was the Schuessler Show. The graduate student sandwiched a two-RBI double between a pair of three-run homers, highlighted by his walk-off blast in the seventh inning. Schuessler became just the fourth Longhorn to record eight RBI in a game since 2008 en route to earning SEC Co-Player of the Week honors. Our guys will make the short trip down the road to Texas State later tonight (6 p.m. CT/ESPN+) before hosting the Cotton Holdings Lone Star Showdown against Texas A&M on Friday (7 p.m. CT/SEC Network), Saturday (3 p.m. CT/ESPN2) and Sunday (3 p.m. CT/ESPN2). See y'all at the ballpark!

earned our stripes 🤘#HookEm pic.twitter.com/b5XiBvRF7S
— Texas Baseball (@TexasBaseball) April 22, 2025

Softball keeps pace atop the SEC with series win over LSU

What an EXHILARATING series victory it was by our No. 2/3 Softball team against LSU last week! Between Reese Atwood's walk-off GRAND SLAM and Mia Scott's speed to leg out an infield single, our Longhorns picked up two more SEC wins to remain in the hunt for another conference championship. Winning should come as no surprise, though, as Thursday's victory gave Coach White his 300th win here on the Forty Acres, so you know he knows how to push the right buttons! It was SEVEN unanswered runs in the last two innings that lifted Texas to a 7-3 win on Thursday with Mia and Joley Mitchell leveling the playing field before Reese's big blow to end the game. After a tough 6-1 loss on Friday, our ladies bounced back and used some TEXAS FIGHT to produce an exciting finish on Saturday. Trailing by two in the sixth, Joley came up clutch again with a three-run homer in the sixth to push our Longhorns ahead, 4-3. An inning later facing a 5-4 deficit, Mia capped a two-run bottom of the seventh with her single to score Kayden Henry from second and give Texas a 6-5 victory to cap the series. A swing through the Sooner State awaits our ladies this week with a stop in Stillwater to play No. 23 Oklahoma State on Wednesday (7 p.m. CT/ESPNU), before heading to Norman for a three-game slate against No. 3/4 Oklahoma. The Red River Rivalry series includes games on Friday (5 p.m. CT/ESPNU), Saturday (11 a.m. CT/ESPN2) and Sunday (1 p.m. CT/ESPN2). Texas will be looking for its first series victory over Oklahoma in Norman since 2006, and it's such a crucial weekend with just two weeks left in the regular season in the race for the SEC regular season title! Let's get it done, ladies!

SERIES WON 🤘#HookEm pic.twitter.com/LH16vQI7U9
— Texas Softball (@TexasSoftball) April 19, 2025

SEC Men's Tennis Champs Part II

What a week it was in Columbia as Coach Berque and our Men's Tennis squad walked into the Carolina Tennis Center as the SEC regular season champs and top seed for the conference tourney, and they walked out having lived up to that billing with trophy number two in hand and blue and gold streamers soaring through the air! In their debut season in the SEC, they came within a few points of running the table of the conference regular season at 13-1, but they still took the title, and then it was three-in-a-row in the tourney to complete the sweep! And what makes it that much more special is they achieved that same trophy sweep in the final season in the Big 12, so it's back-to-back from the old to the new, ladies and gents! Although they did run that table with wins over the 8 seed Auburn, 5 seed Tennessee and 3 seed South Carolina, nothing was easy about it, as some of the same injury issues that were part of their lone loss of the regular season to the Volunteers were still there, plus some new ones, but they never flinched and not only avenged that loss, but they toppled the host Gamecocks on their home courts. Maximum effort was obvious on every court, and I've got to send a special Hook 'Em to Tournament MVP Timo Legout, and All-Tournament Team member Sebastian Gorzny. That all-star squad could have been filled up with just our guys, and we couldn't be prouder of them. It's really a testament to the culture that's in place under Coach Berque and a group of players going back to last year's team. And to see the way our guys dumped the Gatorade cooler on their fearless leader and embraced him afterward, it's really special. Now it's on to NCAAs, and we'll definitely have more tennis action at the TTC this year as our Horns begin their tournament run May 3-4, so we'll see you there!

Speaking of NCAAs, like I mentioned earlier, Coach Joffe and our Women are in prime position to host, too, and would likely start the day before the men and play May 2-3 at the TTC! They had a great run over the last couple of weeks, going on a heater at just the right time with six-straight wins that included an SEC second-round victory over South Carolina in that tournament, as well, to get to the quarterfinals.

Congratulations ⁦@TexasMTN⁩! ⁦@SEC⁩ champions both season and tournament! More to play for! 👏🏼👏🏼🤘🏽 pic.twitter.com/NegtJvDBcj
— Chris Del Conte (@_delconte) April 20, 2025

Track & Field breaks three program records in split weekend of action

There's nothing like breaking a school record here at Texas, but two Longhorns broke their own school records on opposite sides of the country over the weekend. Talk about a coast-to-coast TEXAS TAKEOVER! During the Texas Relays earlier this spring, Kendrick Smallwood broke Keiron Stewart's program record in the 110-meter hurdles that had stood for 14 years. And on Friday in the prelims down in Gainesville, Fla., at the Tom Jones Memorial, Kendrick broke his own school record with a time of 13.26! The hurdlers had it going, as Akala Garrett broke the second program record by topping Raasin McIntosh's 21-year-old mark in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 53.73. And get this, Akala is just a sophomore! On the other side of the country out in California at the Bryan Clay Invitational, Eva Jess broke her own school record in the 10,000-meters by four seconds with her time of 32:50.28. Way to go, Eva! Come on out to Mike A. Myers Stadium on Thursday and Friday, as we'll host the Longhorn Invitational in Coach Flo's final home meet of the season. See y'all at the track!

Men's Golf enters SEC Championship on a serious heater!

Talk about playing your best at the right time of the year. Coach Fields and our guys made it THREE-in-a-row and five overall team titles in the regular season with their hard-fought victory at The Ford Collegiate last week. Entering the final round in third place and five strokes off the lead, the Longhorns rallied to post a two-stroke win over runner-up and No. 7 LSU while also holding off then-No. 1 Auburn. Daniel Bennett was tabbed SEC Men's Freshman of the Week after he tied for third in the individual standings with a 54-hole total of 3-under 207 (72-68-67). How good have the guys been this spring? The Longhorns have won five team titles in addition to a runner-up finish and a third-place showing in their seven tournament appearances this spring. Now we'll turn the page and begin postseason play this week, when the guys travel to Saint Simons Island, Ga., to compete in the SEC Championship on Wednesday-Sunday. Let's go get another trophy, gentlemen!

2025 THE FORD COLLEGIATE CHAMPIONS🤘🏆

our FIFTH team title of the season👏#HookEm | #TakeDeadAim pic.twitter.com/ckZoWTkXIp
— Texas Men's Golf (@TexasMGolf) April 15, 2025

Women's Golf reaches match play quarterfinals at SEC Championship

Our ladies had a solid showing at their first SEC Championship last week at Pelican Golf Club in Florida, advancing to match play before falling 3-2 in the quarterfinals in a hard-fought loss to No. 2 Arkansas. The Longhorns earned the No. 3 seed in match play after the first 54 holes of stroke play, as sophomore Farah O'Keefe claimed individual runner-up honors for her fifth top-five finish of the year. Lauren Kim, who posted three rounds in the 60s during stroke play, placed fifth in the individual standings for her sixth top-five performance of the season. Coach Ianello and our No. 6 ladies will find out where they will be playing in the NCAA Regionals (May 5-7) when the NCAA Selection Show airs on Wednesday (12 p.m. CT/Golf Channel).

No. 7 Beach Volleyball wraps inaugural regular season with another ranked win

As we often say here, what starts here changes the world. Well, our Beach Volleyball team certainly is having one heck of a year in its first official season on the Forty Acres. Coach Metzger and the ladies wrapped up the regular season with a 3-1 record at last weekend's Lone Star Invitational in front of some great home crowds at the Wright-Whitaker Sports Complex. That moved the Longhorns to 24-9 this season, including a stellar 10-2 mark at home. The ladies posted a trio of 5-0 sweeps with two against Southern Mississippi on Friday and a third against No. 17 North Florida on Saturday. The victory over North Florida marked our 11th ranked win of the year! Following Saturday's match, we recognized our first-ever senior class of Maddison Parmelly and Kylie Wickley. And how about the big guy, Bevo, making an appearance at the Beach! Now that is cool. The Sandy Horns turn the page and begin postseason play with a trip to Baton Rouge, La., to compete at the CCSA Championships. Texas claimed the No. 1 seed in the tourney and will begin play against South Carolina on Friday (8 a.m. CT).

Embed tweet (took the top spot):

took the top spot 🤘#HookEm pic.twitter.com/1ORqaShtD5
— Texas Beach Volleyball (@TexasBeachVB) April 21, 2025

Hook 'Em Horns,

Chris Del Conte

P.S. — It's NFL Draft Week!

When dreams become reality 🤘

📺 2025 #NFLDraft – April 24-26 on NFL Network/ESPN/ABC pic.twitter.com/z7yk7vtnif
— Texas Football (@TexasFootball) April 21, 2025

P.S. — You got to love these victory celebrations! Another shoutout to Men's Tennis — SEC Champions times two!!

new conference, same result 🏆🤘#HookEm pic.twitter.com/MwuNzxBNzH
— Texas Men's Tennis (@TexasMTN) April 20, 2025

P.S. — What fun we had at Saturday's Block Party on Comal!

ain't no party like a Comal Street party 🤘#HookEm pic.twitter.com/iiciMYKNIl
— Texas Softball (@TexasSoftball) April 19, 2025

P.S. — Now that's a heck of a Saturday!

A 🤘🏻 Saturday to brag about at Sunday Brunch ➡️ 4-0/all top-20 wins!@TexasMTN beats No. 14 Tennessee to advance to SEC Championship Match@TexasBaseball run-rules No. 8 Auburn, sweeps series@TexasSoftball walks-off No. 9 LSU, wins series@TexasBeachVB sweeps into postseason pic.twitter.com/SmkRSabAAw
— John Bianco (@UT_Bianco) April 19, 2025

P.S. — What Starts Here!

79 years ago today, my grandfather Billy Moss Sansing was officially appointed as the first "director of sports news" for the @TexasLonghorns. He was also the first one in the Southwest Conference. #HookEm pic.twitter.com/MuEXR2l8D8
— Chris Mycoskie 🎙️ (@mycoskie) April 19, 2025

P.S. — Shoutout to our guy Coach Corso, what an incredible run and fired up you'll be doing it one last time in the fall (hopefully that will be with us in Columbus!)

A college football icon.

Thank you, Coach Corso! 🧡 https://t.co/LGnElqZ2Mb pic.twitter.com/kFuymh1Wl4
— Texas Football (@TexasFootball) April 17, 2025

P.S. — We see ya men!

we've got 🤘 of the 10 semifinalists for the @BenHoganAward !! #TakeDeadAim @christiaanmaas1 | @T_morrison_88 pic.twitter.com/AP1p0P441b
— Texas Men's Golf (@TexasMGolf) April 17, 2025

P.S. — Longhorn Nation, we do it for you! So grateful for your never-ending support!!