The Margueritte Bates era for Texas Soccer officially kicked off tonight on SEC+! Why am I mentioning that it was on SEC+? I’ll get into that at the end… These are the cliff-notes I took down while watching in real time:
1st Half: Fast Start (No, really, a super Fast Start!)
Our girls made their presence known EARLY with the first goal of the season scored ~2.5 minutes into the game by Amalia Villarreal (#44, Forward, Junior). Villarreal is one of the foundational pieces of the team. Her accolades include: 2024 SEC Freshman of the Year, Freshman All-SEC Team, All-SEC Second Team, 2025 All-SEC Second Team, and 2025 United Soccer Coaches Southeast All-Region, Third Team. I know she is eager to get the First Team nod this season!
Video from Texas Soccer X/Twitter
In the 36th minute, Sadie Hoch (#9, Midfielder, Sophomore) doubled the lead for Texas with a strike to the right corner of the net, hit from well outside the box (both goals so far have been fantastic shots!).
Hoch has an incredible pedigree with a family full of athletes. Her Mother, National Soccer Hall of Fame 2024 Inductee Tisha, played soccer on the US Women’s National Team, winning a gold medal in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Sadie’s Father, Casey, played baseball at North Carolina and her Brother, Cooper, currently plays football at San Jose State. In case you were wondering, YES, Texas football played against Cooper Hoch last season!
2nd Half: Cruise Control
Texas wasn’t quite as dominant or crisp in the second half. The game was never in doubt, it just felt a bit more like a ‘cruise control’ half than an ‘All Gas No Brakes’ half. However, even with a bit more sloppy play, the Longhorns capped off the opener with the 3rd goal of the match by Kennedi Cotter (#24, Midfielder/Forward, Sophomore Transfer from Rutgers).
My Takeaways
A 3-0 win and an extremely successful first match to start the new era! My Lady of the Match has to be Miss Amalia. She set the tone out of the gate, and the team never looked back.
While it wasn’t a perfect game, the score easily could have been 4-0 if not for an offsides call on Addie Brink (#34, Midfielder/Forward, Freshman). Houston Christian (HCU) may not be the best barometer for what this season will become for Texas, but it was certainly a success when you consider the dominant fashion. Anytime you can end with a clean sheet and 3 different scorers, it is worth a celebration!
I still have no clue what the ceiling is for this team, but I’m excited to find out.
Epilogue: SEC+ Edition
If you ever doubted my dedication to Texas Athletics, my quest to find a way to login to SEC+ to watch the Womens’ soccer game tonight is proof. Around 6:30PM, I filled up my Texas Tumbler, turned on Emperor’s New Groove for my daughter, put my headphones on, and promptly logged into YouTubeTV on my laptop. I was locked and loaded!
However, there was one small problem. I logged into my YouTube TV portal thinking SEC+ was the same as SEC Network. Spoiler alert: it’s not.
I was rerouted to the ESPN App. Which then routed me to a new link to the game. Which THEN asked for an Xfinity password. I thought to myself “Xfinity? People still have cable!?”
So I tried a new route! I tried to login through my Disney+ account. Uh oh, forgot my daughter was watching Emperor’s New Groove! That login caused Disney+ to kick her off, no meltdown but slight panic when she said “mommy, where’s Pacha!?”
I fixed her movie, and said to myself, “S***! How the hell am I going to watch this game!?”
I did some back channeling, and will plead the fifth if asked, but I was able to get an Xfinity login. Praise the Lord for older people who do, still in fact, have cable!!! Next time, I will be prepared.
Hookem,
Michelle