 "Photo: Rob Strong")
 "Photo: Chelcey Adami")
Having lost 14-of-15 games against Texas A&M all-time, Texas faced an uphill battle in the Lone Star Showdown at Mike Myers Stadium on Sunday. After being shut out in Oklahoma the previous weekend to open Big 12 play with a pair of road losses, the Longhorns re-focused on their offensive play and pulled out a 2-1 upset victory over the No. 13 Aggies.
"The game went exactly how we needed it go for us," Texas soccer coach Chris Petrucelli said. "We were really good defensively. We gave them very few goal-scoring chances. And then [when] we had chances, we cashed them in."
A season-high crowd of 1,906 was on hand to witness the Longhorns' victory. The intensity of the match was evident early, as the two teams played step for step with one another. Both teams saw a couple of quality scoring chances in the first half, but the defenses held tight and the Aggies took a 9-6 shot advantage into the scoreless intermission.
The Longhorns came out strong in the second half, as sophomore Kelsey Carpenter split two defenders and had a breakaway opportunity less than two minutes in. Carpenter was tripped up from behind on the play, resulting in Texas' first penalty kick of the season.
Freshman Kasey Moore took the shot and beat A&M keeper Kati Jo Spisak to give the Longhorns a 1-0 advantage.
Four minutes later Texas struck again as Kennedy drove in from the Aggie corner and launched a hard shot at Spisak, who deflected the ball into the near corner of the net to give Texas a 2-0 advantage.
"[Scoring the game winner] feels good," Kennedy said. "We've been struggling offensively so I'm just glad we took advantage of our opportunities and put them away when we could."
The Aggies mounted a determined effort to come back from the 2-0 deficit, largely controlling the play in the final half of the second period. A&M got on the board with just over 22 minutes remaining when Melissa Garey scored her conference-leading 11th goal of the season off an Aggie throw-in.
A&M had several opportunities to tie the game up in the final twenty minutes, but the Texas defense held strong and kept the advantage until the end. Freshman Diana Pfenninger, playing her third consecutive 90-minute match in goal, posted a career-high eight saves in the victory.
"I've just been trying to keep it out of the net; that's my base focus," Pfenninger said. "Just take each game at a time and stay focused the whole time."
Prior to Sunday's win, Texas hosted Baylor on Friday night, with both teams looking for their first conference win.
Texas dominated play early and got some quality scoring opportunities, but failed to capitalize. Ten minutes in, junior Ashley Foster split two Baylor defenders and was driving towards the goal, only to send her shot just over the top crossbar.
Redemption came a few minutes later when freshman Jill Gilbeau lobbed a perfect pass from the corner high into the box and Foster headed the ball into the net to give Texas a 1-0 lead.
"[Scoring] was very rewarding," Foster said. "I was a little disappointed after that first play. But once I got my composure together and settled down, I knew I would be able to do it."
Three-and-a-half minutes later, the Longhorns struck again to increase their advantage to 2-0. Sophomore Caitlin Kennedy took a long shot from outside the box that nearly went in, but hit the top cross bar. Junior Amy Burlingham, who assisted on the previous goal by Foster, was in position to collect the rebound and headed it past Baylor goalkeeper Ashley Holder.
The teams went into the intermission at 2-0 after Texas out shot Baylor 19-4. The Longhorns continued their aggressive play after the intermission. Nearly 10 minutes into the second half, Kennedy scored off of a low corner kick that managed to just dribble inside the near post to give Texas a 3-0 lead.
The Bears tried to rally, taking six second-half shots, but couldn't break the Longhorn defense. Texas held on for the 3-0 victory, giving Pfenninger her first career shutout. The pair of wins improved Texas to 5-1 at home this season.
"[These wins] give us the confidence that maybe we were lacking the past couple of weeks," Petrucelli said. "Number two, it puts us right back in the Big 12 race. It looked like we were in trouble after last weekend, but now we're right back in the middle of it."
Texas (5-5-1, 2-2-0) wills host Colorado on Friday and Texas Tech on Sunday.
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