Mormons Will Not Break Us, Bring on the Aggies

Texas opened up their quest for the NCAA Women's Soccer Championship on Thursday afternoon in College Station, Texas. Facing the #22 BYU Cougars, Texas had their first challenge in what was a horrible tournament draw.

Early on Texas looked like a focused and driven team, as freshman forward Alisha Ortiz scored two goals in the first 20 minutes of the match. The first goal was scored in the 10th minute as Ortiz dribbled through the box, around the keeper and passed the ball into an empty net to give the Horns a 1-0 lead. The score didn't stay like that for long as Ortiz picked up a loose ball outside the box and drilled a strike to the back upper side of the goal to give the Longhorns all they needed for a 2-0 victory. The outburst by Ortiz was a surprise as she only had one goal on the season coming in.

After the early lead, Texas was content to take the pressure off, sit back, and play defense. And defense they played, as BYU had 17 second half shots, forcing keeper Dianna Pfenniger to make 7 saves. However, Texas was able to keep the Cougars off the board and will advance to the second round for only the third time in school history.

There they will face #2 in the nation, Texas A&M who advanced with a 4-1 victory over Stephen F. Austin. Texas has split two meetings with the Aggies, losing 2-0 during conference play in College Station and defeating the Aggies 2-1 in a neutral site victory for the Big XII Tournament Title just 6 days ago.

The Longhorns have won 3 of their last 4 meetings with the Aggies, but have never beaten A&M in College Station.

It's Not Just Football, the NCAA is Stupid in Every Sport

The NCAA tournament field of 64 for women's soccer was announced on Monday, and the Longhorns got screwed. After winning the Big XII Tournament over the weekend, and maintaining a top 12 national ranking the entire season, the Longhorns will not be hosting one of the 16 sub-regionals. Instead the Longhorns must make the trip to College Station where they face a potential second round match up with the #2 Texas A&M Aggies.

I'm not really sure how the NCAA justifies putting teams from the same conference in a potential second round match up, let alone two teams that are among the top 12 in the country. I thought there was some sort of seeding process that went on, apparently I was wrong. But who knows, I'll look forward to that Duke/North Carolina second round NCAA tournament match up.

Not only will it be the second match up between Texas and A&M in a week, it will be their third on the season, between arch rivals, one of which will be ending their season, unfairly premature. But, I suppose before we can worry about this great injustice, Texas will actually need to get by BYU in the first round, and with Texas, tournament wins are hard to come by.

The Longhorns will take on the Mountain West Champions BYU (17-3-2) on Thursday, with the winner advancing to the sub-regional final on Saturday. Most everyone else plays Friday/Sunday, but you know, Mormons, can't play on Sunday, won't do it. The game should be a difficult one for Texas, since there will probably be 3,000 Aggies in attendance for the sole purpose of cheering against Texas.

If the Longhorns do manage a victory they will move on to the second round match up with the Aggies, to face an Aggie team that is ranked in the top 5 of the country, that the Longhorns have never beaten in College Station.

Thanks, NCAA, you work so hard to try and have yourselves taken seriously, and make women's soccer a relevant and legitimate sport, and then you go and do this crap. Seriously, I hope you're glad you saved the couple hundred dollars on travel in sacrificing the legitimacy of your sport.