Texas Tech soccer’s final regular season game Monday was likely frustrating at first as they took 14 shots with seven of them on goal in the first 39 minutes.
Finally, the 40th minute was all they needed. Super-senior Alex Kerr got it to senior right back Elise Anderson, and she centered it perfectly to junior forward Ashleigh Williams for her 14th goal of the year, Anderson’s sixth assist, and ultimately, the 1-0 win over Iowa State to clinch the Big 12 regular season title for the first time ever.
When super-senior goalie Madison White caught the last shot from Iowa State, the team ran onto the pitch and celebrated as a magical regular season came to a close with a 14-0-4 record, including an 8-0-2 mark in the Big 12. It closed not just their first Big 12 regular season title in Tech history, but the first Texas Tech undefeated regular season.
For as much as head coach Tom Stone has done in his 17 years as Tech’s head coach, including a Sweet 16 appearance and a Big 12 tournament title, he hadn’t gotten Tech to either a Big 12 regular season title or undefeated regular season until now.
This Tech soccer program also never had a team and an offense that scored a goal in every regular season game. Their eight Big 12 wins exceeded the program record of six in 2013 and 2019.
Oh, and they were named the No. 5 team in the country in Thursday’s midseason rankings from the NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer Committee, which is the highest ranking Tech has ever had.
From 2020 to now
I wrote about it a bit after the senior day win over Oklahoma State, but this year has felt like a triumph on its own, but it’s felt even greater with the context of the adversity from 2020-22.
Stone said Thursday he doesn’t like to talk about it because Tim Tadlock’s baseball team went through it worse, but the COVID-19 team in 2020 could’ve been in this spot, and so could’ve other teams in the past if they stayed healthy.
The 2021 and 2022 seasons didn’t go as planned either, whether it was never having Ally Griffin back healthy or Blackburn being hurt for most of 2022, and it showed. What used to feel like a regular appearance in the NCAA Tournament became a drought, even if was a small one.
This time, it all came together. Although right back Macy Blackburn tore her ACL Oct. 8 against TCU and was second in the country in assists, Elise Anderson has stepped up so much the last few games playing all 90 minutes, and this team has otherwise stayed healthy with the other 10 starters starting every single game. Really, Elise Anderson has felt like the 12th starter going back to the start of the year.
After the win, Stone said they never set a goal of winning the Big 12, especially considering the sport of soccer; instead, they thought further ahead.
“From the very beginning, we told this team, ‘I want you to stop obsessing over the Big 12 and start thinking about bigger things,’” Stone said. “‘Think about the NCAA Tournament. That’s our standard. That’s where we should be, and this team is good enough to be there, so if we don’t make the NCAA Tournament, that’s going to be a massive letdown.’”
He said he also told the team they’d go for a trophy like this if it was there, but he said looking ahead resonated with this team.
Their NCAA Tournament goal was met as they’ve essentially punched their ticket, and the real question now is how many games will they host in November.
Superlatives
Along with the Big 12 regular season title, No. 5 ranking, 25-match unbeaten streak in the regular season going back to last year, and their 10-0-0 record at the John Walker Soccer Complex, the individual achievements feel endless and will likely grow through the postseason:
- Williams (14) and Kerr (10) are Tech’s first duo to have 10 goals each.
- Williams’ 33 points (14 goals, six assists) are tied with Kirsten Davis’ 2021 season for the third most ever in Tech history, and there’s still a postseason to catch up to Janine Beckie’s 2014 season (38) and Kristy Frantz’s 1996 record of 44 points.
- Williams is the fourth Red Raider to score at least 14 goals in a season, joining Frantz, Beckie and Davis, three of the best players to ever wear the scarlet and black on the pitch.
- Williams is the first Red Raider ever to have seven game-winning goals in a season.
- She has 10 goals, but Kerr’s assist was her fifth of the year, one more than she had in four years at Vanderbilt.
- White achieved her 11th shutout this season, extending her all-time Tech record with her 37th career shutout.
- Elise Anderson started the last three games for Tech, and she assisted all three goals in that span as Tech closed out the Big 12 regular season with two wins and a draw.
Leaders, Big 12 Tournament Monday
Super-senior center back Hannah Anderson is the lone captain, but Stone said Thursday she has a group of leaders around her with the same mindset that keep them in the present.
Stone is right that coaches can’t do all the leading; the players have to lead in the locker room and on the field as well. This team has the talent, the leadership, and the grit to go all the way to North Carolina in December for the Women’s College Cup.
As this team knows maybe better than we do, they’ve still got work to do. The Sprouts Farmers Market Big 12 Championship in Round Rock, Texas, starts Saturday with the top 10 teams in the Big 12, and as the No. 1 seed, Tech will have a first-round bye.
Their tournament will start in the quarterfinals Monday at 2 p.m. with the winner of Saturday’s game between Baylor and Cincinnati, two teams Tech has beaten this season.
Whatever happens from here, it’s been a ride none of us should ever forget, and none of us should take it for granted.
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