Reissue: A brief history of the Longhorns and Aggies soccer rivalry

NOTE: This article was originally published on the 10th of November 2022, on The Striker. It was written ahead of the 2022 NCAA tournament meeting between the University of Texas and Texas A&M. The Longhorns would go on to win that match 3-1.

On Sunday, 29th September, those two Texas schools will meet in the SEC conference. It will be the first league regular season meeting between the two rivals since 2011.

On Monday, the embers of an old rivalry flickered and started to catch. For the first time since 2019, we have a Texas A&M and University of Texas soccer match.

The renewed college clasico comes courtesy of the NCAA soccer selectors handing the Aggies an at-large bid for the 2022 edition of its national 64-team tournament. The Longhorns had a seeded spot in the bracket, which was guaranteed after winning the Big12 regular season.

READ MORE: Best-ever Longhorns itching to make history against rival Aggies

Anyone who has lived in Texas, or even just stopped off at Buc-Ees, will know that there is no love lost between these two schools. To call the two fan bases bitter towards one another would do a disservice to the word. No, these two despise each other. Cats and mice have better relationships. 

So with burnt orange and maroon set to collide once again, I thought it was a good time to take a trip down memory lane.

What is the history of these two Texas college soccer programs? And does the “Lone Star showdown” crossover to soccer? 

Longhorns history

In 1993 the University of Texas founded its women’s soccer team. Almost 100 years to the day after the university’s men’s football team played its first-ever match. The patriarchy never rests.

Coached by graduate student Eric Zobrist and led by star forward Monica Moore, the inaugural Longhorns squad earned a respectable 8-8-2 record and even won two post-season games.

Moore made history by scoring the first-ever UT goal in the program’s opening match, a 2-1 loss to the University of the Incarnate Word. She was even paraded around at a Longhorns volleyball match the very same day.

“Jody Conradt, the women's athletics director at the time, asked me to sign the soccer ball with which I had scored the first goal at the halftime presentation,” Moore told UT sports media. “They introduced us as the first UT women's soccer team and we hadn't even had time to shower yet. It is a great memory that I hope one day my children will think is cool."

Dang Pibulvech became the first proper head coaching hire in 1994 and led the team to its first-ever winning season (9-7-2) that same year. The early improvement didn’t last, and UT didn’t have another winning season under Pibulvech. 

In 1999, the Longhorns made the switch to Chris Petrucelli - the current head coach of the NWSL team Chicago Red Stars - and that’s when UT soccer really started to come alive.

Then in 2001, marshaled by defender Laura Kahm, Texas finished top of the Big12 for the first time in its history and played in its first-ever NCAA tournament match.

Excluding the 2009 season, the Longhorns and Petrucelli went on to qualify for every single NCAA tournament for the next decade. They also won the 2006 and 2007 Big12 tournament championships. 

After 13 seasons in Austin, Petrucelli was let go and Angela Kelly hopped over from Tennessee to become just the fourth-ever coach in UT soccer history. She was tasked with taking the program to the next level, beyond just being NCAA early-round fodder and an occasional conference champion. 

Did she succeed? Ever so slightly. 

To Kelly’s credit, since 2012 she has revamped the Longhorns' international scouting networks (especially in Canada) as well as UT’s recruitment capabilities in the state. But consistent success on the pitch has taken years to cultivate. 

In 2021, with Canadian international Julia Grosso, maybe the best-ever UT player, pulling the strings, the Longhorns went undefeated in the Big12 for the first time ever and reached the conference final. Where they were eventually defeated by a surging TCU. 

Kelly collected her first piece of silverware this season by winning the Big12 regular season title. She even recorded another unbeaten record in the conference regular season. Sophomores Trinity Byars, Lexi Massimo and Emj Cox are quickly evolving into some of the best players in their positions in the country.

One could argue the past few seasons of Texas soccer have been the best ever in the program's history. And Kelly deserves plaudits for the hard work and strategy displayed to bring the team to where it is now. 

Still, Kelly, like her predecessor Petrucelli, is yet to take the burnt orange past the round of 16 in the NCAA tournament. Making a splash on the national stage, that remains the biggest quest for Texas in 2022. 

Aggies history 

Unlike the Longhorns' slow rise to relevance in college soccer, the Aggies were a regional - perhaps even national - powerhouse almost overnight. Between 1995 and 2020 just four universities in the nation made the NCAA tournament every single season. UNC, Stanford, Virginia, and Texas A&M. 

Also founded in 1993, the Aggies have fewer head coaches in its history than there have been monarchs of England in the 21st century. Current head coach G. Guerrieri is the first and only person to ever lead A&M’s soccer program. He went 15-3-1 and 15-2-2 in his first two seasons before joining the Southwest Conference in 1995. 

“I was able to get some really talented players from around Texas and Oklahoma to be freshmen on the team that started training camp with an open tryout in mid-August on the Simpson Drill Field. There was definitely talent on the '92 Varsity II team, and several players made the inaugural roster for '93, including our captain, Rennie Rebe,” Guerrieri said in an interview with A&M media. 

Ranked 13th in the country, the ‘95 Aggies finished second in their conference and impressively made it to the second round of their debut NCAA tournament. Since then, Guerrieri and A&M haven’t looked back. 

Between 1995 and 2020, the maroon and white won 17 conference titles and made the Elite 8 six times at the NCAA tournament. With Houston Dash star Shea Groom amongst their ranks, the Aggies even made it to the Final Four at the 2014 NCAA College Cup. The school’s best-ever finish. For almost two decades, the Aggies have felt like the gold standard of Texas college soccer. 

The good times can’t always last though. The unthinkable happened in 2021, just seven months after another impressive Elite 8 appearance at the NCAA tournament. A&M failed to qualify for the national tournament.

It was the first time since Bill Clinton was president that the Aggies had failed to do so. It ended Guerrieri’s exemplary streak of appearances on the national stage. 

Guerrieri hasn’t been alone in shaping Aggie soccer since its genesis. By his side has been assistant coaching couple Phil and Lori Stephenson. After 25 seasons, Lori Stephenson retired from the game and left her post in 2022. She was replaced by former A&M star and NWSL player Alyssa Mautz. 

Despite last season’s uncharacteristic disappointment, there is plenty to like about the young Aggies. Fifth-year senior center back Karlina Sample looks pro-ready, intelligent, and steely. Junior Kate Colvin can unlock defenses from midfield. And highly touted freshman Sydney Becerra has scored some audacious golazos in her season in College Station.

And maybe, for the first time in a long time, there is a chip on the shoulder of Guerrieri and his squad from East Texas. 

The rivalry 

In much the same way that the Aggies have been the gold standard of Texas college soccer since the early 1990s, the clasicos between the two schools have more often than not left the Lone Star state painted maroon. 

UT and A&M have met 28 times in all competitions since 1993. Unspursprinsly, the Aggies have dominated the series with 21 wins to the Longhorns’ five. There have been just two draws: A 0-0 in 2008 and a 1-1 in 2010, both matches were played at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin. 

Although A&M won the first-ever meeting between the two schools, the Longhorns worked hard in a 1-0 in Austin. The second time the schools met, in College Station, the Aggies embarrassed the Longhorns 9-0. 

The Aggies won the first 14 meetings by a goal margin of 51-5 between the two schools before a famous Halloween night in 2003 saw the Longhorns finally break their duck.

With 35 seconds left on the clock, and A&M ahead by one goal, Kati McBain equalized for UT to send the game to overtime. Nikki Thaden then converted a penalty kick in extra time, awarded for a dubious handball, to make history. Some believe that spooky night was the night the rivalry between the two schools really began on the soccer pitch. 

After A&M left the Big12 in 2011, the rivalry between the two schools has understandably cooled off somewhat on the pitch. But regionally speaking to fans of both schools, the animosity is still there. 

Confetti-gate, the last meeting

Only once since 2011 have UT and A&M faced each other, which was in the opening round of the 2019 NCAA tournament. 

Kelly’s Longhorns took a surprise 1-0 lead early on, with Cydney Billups heading in from close range. But quickly the Aggies reasserted their superiority. A deflected Grace Piper shot from long-range and a slick finish from Tera Ziemer in the box made it 2-1 before halftime.

Piper then scored the goal of the night from 25 yards, smashing the ball into the top corner with an air of venomous nonchalance, for the Aggies’ third. A UT own goal in the 72nd minute capped off a one-sided 4-1 win for the maroon and white. 

“They [A&M] took their chances very well. I think that seemed like a match that could have been 10-8. It was back and forth,” said Kelly after the match. 

"How could you not perform with a crowd like that tonight? It was around 3,000. An absolutely amazing showing by the 12th Man, and the team rose to the occasion. They were great,” A&M assistant coach Stephenson said about his team that night. 

In front of a raucous Ellis Field, Piper famously celebrated the win by doing the UT “Hook ‘Em” hand gesture upside down as a taunt. The Longhorns bench was also said to be upset with the amount of confetti that intentionally rained down on their bench after every Aggie goal hit the back of the net. 

This last fractious meeting sets up the latest edition three years later beautifully. 

Pack the stands? 

A goalless draw back in 2008 remains a UT school record home attendance of 5,585 people. It is also the largest attendance ever in a Longhorns vs. Aggies match. Just ahead of a 3-1 home win for A&M at Ellis Field in 2007, where 5,552 people showed up. Despite Austin's reputation as a soccer city, the Aggies have consistently shown up for women’s college soccer in far greater numbers than their central Texas rivals.

A&M has a home average attendance of around 3,300 in 2021. The soccer-specific Ellis Field is renowned as one of the best college soccer venues in the country. College Station’s school record attendance of 8,204, for a match against UNC in 2006, also dwarfs its Austin counterpart. Although, again, it must be said that in recent years Kelly's Longhorns have shown to be capturing Austin hearts like never before.