Last year, the Texas women's soccer team won four games. Yes, you read that correctly. Out of a 17-game season, the Texas Longhorns won four (4) games.
That's less than a 24% winning rate.
In the history of the program, which kicked off its first game in 1994, the Longhorns had never won fewer than six games... had never lost more than 67% of their games (and that was a really bad 6-9-3 season back in 1998).
Unsurprisingly, Texas Athletic Director Chris Del Conte decided it was time for the Horns to part ways with then-head coach Angela Kelly, who had been with the Longhorns since 2012.
Then, Texas hired Margueritte Bates, who had just spent four years with the UCLA Bruins and had led the team to a National Championship in her first year as head coach.
It has taken less than two weeks for Bates to prove herself worthy of the job, and the Horns are already just one game away from matching their number of wins from last season.
With their most recent win, a 1-0 victory over Grand Canyon, the Longhorns improved to 3-0-1 on the season, having yet to lose a game and tying 1-1 with the Arizona State Sun Devils.
Texas Longhorns are looking in fine form for a run through the SEC
After the terrible showing last year, Texas was far from a team in the Top 25 entering this season. However, the start to the season that the Horns have seen has undoubtedly sent things in the right direction, and that's exactly what Bates needed to see before facing her first year in the SEC.
While the Longhorns have three more non-conference opponents (Baylor, Incarnate Word, and TCU), the real challenge will come when they take on their conference schedule.
- at Arkansas Razorbacks, Sept. 10
- versus No. 16 Tennessee Volunteers, Sept. 18
- at Florida Gators,
- at Ole Miss Rebels,
- versus Oklahoma Sooners,
- at Kentucky Wildcats,
- versus LSU Tigers,
- versus South Carolina Gamecocks,
- at No. 3 Vanderbilt Commodores,
- versus Auburn Tigers,
Yes, the TCU Horned Frogs are the No. 15 team and the Baylor Bears are the No. 6 team in the country, but the SEC boasts contender after contender on the national stage, and once conference play kicks off, the Horns will have to face the No. 16 Tennessee Volunteers and the No. 3 Vanderbilt Commodores.
Then, after the regular season wraps up, Texas will stare down the barrel of the SEC Soccer Tournament, where they could cross any of the four teams from that conference that are currently in the Top 25.
- No. 3 Vanderbilt Commodores
- No. 16 Tennessee Volunteers
- No. 18 Alabama Crimson Tide
- No. 25 Georgia Bulldogs
Just two years ago, the Longhorns won the SEC Tournament as the No. 21 team in the nation. Right now, Texas is back on track for that same kind of season.
No, the Horns aren't one of the ranked teams in the conference, but the momentum that Bates is currently building on the 40 Acres was exactly what this program needed.
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