This article originally appeared in the 25th Anniversary Issue of Horns Illustrated magazine. To order a copy of the 25th Anniversary Football Preview Issue, which includes interviews, insights and more, click here.
By James Schleicher, Publisher
ENTERING HER EIGHTH season at the helm of the Texas soccer program, head coach Angela Kelly has built a house on a solid foundation. That sturdy foundation ranges from a staff of experienced coaches and recruiting channels that flow across Texas, to out-of-state hotbeds on both coasts, and even north of the border into Canada.
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The frame and roof of the house come in the form of players with a depth of talent and experience, a group of 16 upperclassmen, including senior two-time United Soccer Coaches Second Team All-American forward Cyera Hintzen and two All-Big 12 First Team honorees. Just behind them, a group of underclassmen provide youthful threats in all phases of play.
“The program is in such great shape with so many personalities,” Kelly said. “The players we have are quality — quality players with really high experience but they’re also wonderful young women. We have a high GPA semester-in and semester-out. We had four people with 4.0s last year. The state of our program is in a wonderful place. Now it’s once again getting geared up and prepared to go out, go after it, and pursue excellence.”
As the Horns prepare for the 2019 season, the only thing left to do is string the lights and celebrate the holidays in the form of a Big 12 title or, better yet, a deep run in the NCAA tournament.
“This group is really, really hungry to light the tower,” Kelly said. “They’re hungry to win that Big 12 trophy. Those are things that are coming from them, I’m much more of a believer in the process and that’s the way the team performs. Deep down innately for our senior class … they want it and they want it badly.”
Hallmarks of the 2019 Horns
Kelly has confidence that this year’s team can achieve its goals.
“This squad that we have now, is probably one of the deepest most talented squads that I’ve had to coach in my 23 years of collegiate coaching,” she said.
Take a quick glance at the Longhorns women’s soccer team’s social media and #RAMPED shows up often. The acronym stands for: Respect, Accountability, Mentality, Pursue Excellence, Energy and Effort, Discipline. Kelly has developed the set of values over the course of her career and put it as the hallmark of her program in recent years.
“It’s what we rate ourselves on and if we’re doing all of those things we’re going to be successful,” junior midfielder Haley Berg said. “Ang [Kelly] has really implemented that into us for both soccer and non-soccer. It’s really something we’re living by and if we’re doing all of those things, then we’re doing it right.”
Over the course of a spring season where the Horns went 4-1 in their five matches with their only loss coming to the Houston Dash (the professional women’s team), the ‘Respect’ aspect of the mindset took center stage, with the Texas staff harking on the importance of the value both on and off the field.
“That’s her biggest thing, that we have respect for each other and ourselves,” Berg said. “We’ve all been focusing on being together and building each other up instead of knocking each other down. Sometimes that just means people going out of their way and letting each other know that you’re there for them whenever they need it. Which I think we’ve done a really good job of doing.”
Hintzen echoed Berg’s sentiment.
“It’s just giving your all for each and every person beside you,” Hintzen said. “At the end of the day we are a family.
Just respecting each other and working the hardest I can … when you do that no one can ask for more. RAMPED just means giving your all, working hard for one another and not backing down from a battle.”
Success made simple
Kelly provided some insight on how she developed the acronym.
“All the young people, when they study, they have all these acronyms that help them remember. I remember sitting back and thinking, how can I help them remember what’s going to be a little road map to success.
And I thought to myself, if they have these qualities, and they are true to them and true to themselves they will find success. They’ll find success as an athlete, but more importantly they’ll find success as a woman and as a young professional.”
Excellence on and off the field remains a key facet of the team. The Longhorns placed nine players on the 2018 All Big 12 Academic team and redshirt sophomore Tecora Turner earned the Dr. Gerald Lage Academic Achievement Award, the Big 12 Conference’s highest academic honor.
“Once you get everyone understanding and accepting their role on the squad, that’s the piece that takes time,” Kelly said. “All things valuable are worth waiting for. It’s exciting to be where we are as a program because they are a family that have a genuine love and care for one another.”
The team rounded a corner early in the 2018 season. Playing at Chapel Hill’s famed Finley South Field, the Longhorns faced perennial women’s soccer power North Carolina (side note: Kelly, a UNC grad helped the Tar Heels win four consecutive national titles during her time in Chapel Hill).
The Horns played the No. 4 Tar Heels to a 1-1 tie in the double overtime match, proving they could hang with the best of them on any field. Two days later Texas beat No. 24 Central Florida 2-1, thanks to a Hintzen goal three minutes into overtime.
“I know we were pretty nervous going into those games,” Hintzen said. “Just because you hear the name UNC and everybody gets nervous because they’ve been such a powerhouse. We just had to realize and tell the team ‘we’re Texas, we’re just as great.’ We went in with that mentality and we ended up tying them and then coming out with a win against UCF. I think that was a big turning point of our season. It made us realize, we have this and we are great. It gave us that confidence going into the season.”
Returning to the friendly confines of Mike A. Myers Stadium — arguably the most scenic soccer pitch in the country with its vista overlooking the Texas State Capitol — the Longhorns went on a seven-game winning streak and rose as high as No. 8 in the national rankings last season. The team finished the regular season undefeated on its home field.
In conference play Texas went 5-3-1, with losses to Texas Christian, No. 16 West Virginia and Texas Tech.
Building on the foundation of 2018
At the Big 12 Championship tournament Texas bested Kansas in a double-overtime affair which ended with the Longhorns winning a penalty kick shootout 3-1. In the semifinals the Longhorns fell to No. 14 West Virginia 1-0.
Drawing an NCAA First Round match-up with Virginia Tech of the Atlantic Coast Conference (known for its soccer strength) meant a challenging match. The Longhorns played the match neck-and-neck with the Hokies through the first half, but gave up a goal in the 67th minute. The Hokies held on to the lead and won 1-0.
“To their credit they put one away and we had a ton of opportunities that we didn’t put away,” Kelly said.
With the 2018 campaign in the rearview the Longhorns have a fresh mindset for their 2019 campaign.
“We 100 percent want to win a Big 12 Conference title,” Hintzen said, “I know as a senior class that is our goal. One of our really big goals is to make it feel like a family when we’re playing, because that makes everything easier. We just want to take everything one game at a time, because when we get caught up in the end goal of the Big 12 Conference title we can get distracted. There are so many other things that come before that. We just need to make sure everybody’s healthy and focused for each game.”
At the forefront of its attack Texas will have the 2018 Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year in Hintzen, who across 21 contests last year led the team in both goals (10) and assists (9).
“She’s an unbelievable goal scorer,” Kelly said. “She’s extremely competitive and she wants to get it done. She was up for the MAC Hermann trophy. She’s eager to be one of the best in the country and I’m just excited to help her get there.”
Hintzen earned a spot on last year’s MAC Hermann preseason watch list and will likely find herself in the running for the award — which goes to the best soccer player in the country — again this year.
Having played and trained together for going on nine years, dating back to a club team in the North Dallas area, midfielder Berg and the attacking Hintzen have a chemistry which helps them on the field.
“When I came [to Texas] it was just a natural kind of connection thing,” Berg said “It wasn’t really taught or talked about, it just kind of happens. I just knows where she’s going to be, she knows where I’m going to be, and we just know how and where each other wants the ball.”
For UT football fans, the Berg-Hintzen combo likely evokes memories of the Colt McCoy-Jordan Shipley brain-sync tandem. The bond makes on-field communication seem almost telekinetic at times.
“It’s kind of scary sometimes,” Hintzen said, “because it’s weird how we just know but it’s also really fun at the same time. Against Northern Colorado, I was coming from almost half field. I started running across and I didn’t know if Haley had seen it, but she just played this perfectly placed ball and I ended up getting on the end of it and scoring it.”
Hintzen said that Berg’s also just an “awesome” player.
“She’s really technical and her skill set is so great,” Hintzen said. “It’s amazing watching her play and dance on the ball, beat people and find a way to get it behind.”
Berg had six goals and three assists as a sophomore and had 10 goals over the course of the five game spring season.
Every ounce, every minute
Sophomores Julia Grosso and Emma Regan share a similar connection as Berg and Hintzen, having played together for 10 years, dating back to their club days in Vancouver, BC.
Regan plays with “grit and toughness” according to Hintzen.
“Voted by the team, Emma Regan was voted as a great teammate and someone who invested every ounce of herself, every minute,” Kelly said.
After missing two early season matches and six conference matches in 2018 while helping the Canadian National Team qualify for the 2019 World Cup (where she earned a spot on the roster but didn’t see game action), Grosso joined the Longhorns for conference play and scored two goals last year while starting 10 matches and playing 841 minutes in the season.
“They call her the ‘Canadian Messi’,” Kelly said. “She’s a left side player and she’s crafty.”
Despite only playing three conference matches, she still showed the Big 12 coaches enough for her to garner accolades as the Big 12 Freshman of the Year. Texas players have earned the award three years straight. A streak they hope to continue this season.
“One of my goals is to help one of our freshmen get [Big 12 Freshman of the Year],” Hintzen said, “because I think that’s an awesome streak that we have going.”
Pivotal back line ready to stand tall
The team designates its own leadership team by vote and does not have designated captains. In the spring that leadership consisted of Berg, Hintzen and Atu Mshana.
The group will likely look similar in the fall. Over and over, her teammates and her coach pointed to senior Mshana as an unsung hero of the team and a pivotal leader.
‘“She’s like the backbone of this team,” Berg said. “Her soccer mind is beyond smart. She reads the game well, her footwork is crazy, and her defensive brain is unreal.”
The defender from Garland has locked down her spot as an on-the-field general and a solid defender. She started every match in the defensive backline for Texas last year and played every minute in 18 of 20 matches.
“You don’t have to show her where you want it, she knows and she’s on the same page as you,” Hintzen said. “She’s also one of the best 1-v-1 defenders I’ve ever seen. Not much really gets past Atu, unless you’re already in behind her. If you’re 1-v-1 with her it’s tough getting past her.”
Along with soccer skills, Berg also described Mshana as the funniest player on the team. Kelly had high praise for Mshana as well.
“She’s one of the best center backs I’ve ever trained,” Kelly said. “She hasn’t received the recognition that I believe she’s earned, but there wouldn’t be a coach in the country that we’ve played against that doesn’t say ‘wow, that center back is unbelievable.’”
In the net the Longhorns will likely depend on Nicole Curry who holds the Texas record for clean sheets with 11 shutouts (2017) and had seven shutouts last season while starting every match. Curry could have a battle for the goalkeeper spot as junior Savannah Madden had a good spring, according to Kelly.
According to Kelly, sophomores Mackenzie McFarland, Carlee Allen and junior Peyton McGee stood out in the spring and will likely earn starting roles soon.
As junior outside back, Emma Jett gets up and down the flank and her team will depend on her to whip the ball in from the side for scoring opportunities.
“She probably has the best engine on squad,” Kelly said. “If our players average about five miles per game, she probably averages six to seven miles a game.”
Among Texas’ five signees for the 2019 recruiting class are Syndey Nobles, who helped her Southlake Carroll squad to a State Championship, and Teni Akindoju who played on the same club team as Grosso and Regan with Vancouver Whitecaps system.
“You’ll definitely see some contribution from the young players,” Kelly said. “I’m not afraid to have that happen. It doesn’t matter what age you are, you just get the job done and you play.”
As the 2019 season approaches, Kelly said she’s looking forward to the early season home match against Washington, a team led by Lesle Gallimore, who is set to retire after 26 years as the head coach of the Huskies.
In Big 12 play the match against West Virginia on Oct. 6 will have a red circle around it on the calendar. The Longhorns hold a 2-7-1 all-time record against the Mountaineers. But all of the conference matches will remain important to the team.
“It’s going to be a big-time focus for us to be the most consistent that we can be and that we ever have been in conference play,” Kelly said. “It’s a tough conference. One of the toughest in the country which is great for our players because they’re getting tested. There’s a lot of parity, but we want to be the best team in this conference.”
While maintaining possession gets stressed often by Kelly, she also talked about how her style of play centers around transition — going from defense to offense, or the reverse.
“Being explosive in transition and the best form of offense is starting with our defensive pressure,” Kelly said. “That’s how I was as a player and that’s how I love to coach. But you need a very deep, fit, quality squad that understands the game. As a coach you don’t always have all of those components lined up and I feel like this fall you’re going to get to see the brand of soccer that coach Kelly loves to coach.”
If all plays out according to plan, the Longhorns hope to celebrate the holidays early this year.
“We want to win, and we have a team that’s ready to do so, so we’re excited,” Kelly said.
Texas opens the regular season at 7 p.m. Thursday hosting Gonzaga at Mike A. Myers Stadium.
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