No. 17 Texas soccer edges Iowa State, 1-0, to remain undefeated

By Steve Lansdale

AUSTIN, Texas — Freshman midfielder Haley Berg scored her third goal of the season in the 50^th minute and sophomore goalkeeper Nicole Curry picked up her sixth shutout of the season to lift the No. 17 Texas soccer team to a 1-0 victory over visiting Iowa State.

The victory in UT’s first game this season against a Big 12 opponent gives the Longhorns [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]a 9-0-0 record. The undefeated start is the longest in program history and keeps Texas as the only Div. I team in the country without a loss or a tie this season.

Berg’s goal, which she scored off a UT corner kick by defender Emma Jett, was her second game-winning goal of the season.

Texas head coach Angela Kelly said the Cyclones presented more of a fight than their 2-7-1 (0-1-0 in Big 12 games) record might suggest, and said it took an exceptional effort by the Longhorns to pull out the win.

“First of all, credit to Iowa State — they were very well organized and very hard to break down,” Kelly said. “We had a very special effort by freshman Haley Berg, a fantastic effort — she is a very special player. She and Cyera (Hintzen) were drawing two and three people in the first half. I just told both of them, they are going to have to get used to that in their career. That is a credit to them, but they can use it to their advantage to open up their teammates. They can also figure out tactical ways to solve that. We, as a group, did a good job to create opportunities for both of them and our whole group in the second half. I feel like we had a pretty good piece of the ball in our movements, offensive shape and seat of play. We are still really young, so we are going to show them some details on closing out a match, but just credit the squad for the match.”

Berg said that when she scored her goal, she was unaware if the ball even had reached the net, and said that Jett was the one who created the scoring chance.

“I gave it back to Emma, and I pulled out,” Berg said. “I was waiting for her to cross it, but then the other player went toward Emma, so she just gave me an easy ball. I was able to cut inside and just shot it. I don’t even know how it went in.”

The Longhorns return to action Sunday in their biggest test of the season when No. 5 West Virginia comes to Austin for a 1 p.m. game that will be shown on the Longhorn Network.[/s2If] [s2If !current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] [article-offer] [/s2If]