Cyera Hintzen’s fast start leads to conference, national honors

By Steve Lansdale
AUSTIN, Texas — As the 2018 college soccer season gets underway, Texas forward Cyera Hintzen is collecting awards like she normally collects goals.
The junior from Garland, Texas scored all three UT goals to help the No. 21 Longhorns to a 1-0-1 weekend, tying No. 4 North Carolina, 1-1 and then knocking off No. 23 UCF, 2-1. Both games were played in Chapel Hill, N.C.
For her efforts, Hintzen was named the United Soccer Coaches’ Div. I National Player of the Week and Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week, and earned an honorable mention inclusion on Top Drawer Soccer’s National Team of the Week.
Against the Tar Heels, Hintzen put the Longhorns ahead just 70 seconds into the game when she pounced on a UNC turnover and buried her first goal of the year. Texas surrendered the tying goal, but hung on for the tie. Against UCF, she scored both UT goals, including the “golden goal” game-winner in the 93rd minute (the third minute of overtime).
A member of the watch list for the Hermann Trophy (given annually to the nation's top men's and women's players), Hintzen has established herself as a clutch performer, with eight game-winner goals in her career and five goals in the 82nd minute or later. Her three career golden goals are tied for the most in program history.