The 2025 season proved to be a disaster for Texas soccer.

Entering the season ranked No. 19, along with last year’s Southeastern Conference Tournament Championship, expectations for the squad were sky high. But there was one big problem — this year’s roster looked much different from the year prior.

The Longhorns lost many key players from last season, including six of their seven top scorers and key pieces of their defense. Texas had holes in its roster heading into the season, and underclassmen filled many of them, including four freshmen starting almost every game. 

This lack of exposure to the collegiate game was on display in all 17 games, eventually leading to a forgettable 4-12-1 record. 

While pre-season evaluators may have looked past that, Texas head coach Ange Kelly knew getting this brand new team to gel would be difficult.

“That was always going to be a challenge to replace that group,” Kelly said after Texas’ win against Ole Miss.

And those challenges started early, as Texas opened its season with a 3-2 loss at home to Northwestern State. The three goals conceded in its opener would be a season theme for the Longhorns. They couldn’t stop teams from scoring.

The Longhorns allowed 41 goals in their 17 games this season — 11 more than anyone else in the SEC. In fact, Texas didn’t keep its first clean sheet of the season until Sunday against Ole Miss, when it won 2-0. 

The backline lacked continuity all season, and a lot of that can be attributed to the team’s lack of experience playing with each other. A goalkeeper is often the commander of a defense, and this season, both players between the sticks for Texas were freshmen. 

Kelly tried a few different combinations at the back, but none of them yielded any fruit. Fixing this area will have to be priority number one for her going into 2026.

A game of moments

At the end of the day, soccer will always be a game of moments. A team can dominate and create lots of chances, but if it doesn’t convert any of them, it is all for naught. This is why having game-changing players is so important.

This season, the Longhorns only had two players who consistently provided an attacking threat, forwards freshman Ava McDonald and sophomore Amalia Villarreal. The two combined for about 62% of Texas’ total shots and scored 17 of its 25 goals.

It’s great to have two superstars, but when they’re the only players opposing teams are worried about, it’s hard for an attack to prosper. That’s why the Longhorns recorded the fourth-worst attacking record in the SEC this season. 

A team full of killers up top is essential for a successful team, and Texas didn’t have that. At least not yet.

The future

While the season didn’t go as Texas would’ve liked, that doesn’t mean there aren’t positives to take away. The young squad garnered tons of high-level experience this year, which can only bode well for the future.

“It’s very rare in a program that you go in as a freshman and get (that) many minutes,” Kelly said.

It’s also rare for a freshman to light the world on fire in her first season, but that’s exactly what McDonald did. With nine goals and four assists to her name, she has a great shot at winning SEC Freshman of the Year. McDonald has the talent to become one of the best players in collegiate soccer, and that’s a luxury not a lot of teams have.

It was a rough, long and frustrating season for Kelly and the Longhorns, but if there’s one thing fans have learned over the years, it’s that Kelly knows how to build a winning team. With the tools she has going into next season, she has the chance to do that once again.