LAKEWOOD RANCH, Fla. – The fifth-seeded UTSA soccer team (9-5-6) has battled all the way to the final line of its first American Conference Championships appearance, set to appear in the championship final on Sunday against sixth-seeded Rice (10-3-6). Rematching after a 1-1 draw during the regular season, both the Owls and Roadrunners are vying for their first respective American tournament title, set to kick off at 1 p.m. CT on ESPNU in a battle of the tournament underdogs.
Following the action
The game will be carried live on ESPNU with Ariya Massoudi (play-by-play), Morgan Bowen (analyst) and Maria Trivelpiece (reporter) on the final broadcast call from Lakewood Ranch.
The American Conference will also provide live stats.
About the Roadrunners
In likely the single greatest comeback in program history, the Roadrunners defied the odds in not only advancing past NCAA third-ranked regular season champion Memphis, but doing so by delivering an improbable comeback, surviving overtime and winning the penalty kick shootout in dominant fashion. Though former Memphis player Zoë May notched the first-ever UTSA goal against the Tigers to go in front, Memphis responded and knotted the score quickly. That stalemate held late into the game and the Tigers put away back-to-back goals in the final 10 minutes. Lesser teams would have folded with a 3-1 deficit against one of the top squads in the country, but instead, freshman Brooklyn Bailey and Aaliyaiah Durden netted goals just over a minute apart to equalize the score at 3-3. Fast forward to PKs and Memphis missed its first two, while Jasmine Kessler, May and Bri Carrigan all delivered – with Kessler batting away the final Memphis opportunity to move the Roadrunners on to the final.
UTSA is looking for its first title in the new conference and its first 10-win season since 2022 in Sunday’s final. The team has been steady at being defense-heavy, but the offense has come alive in four consecutive games with a goal – the total at 10 in that span (2.5 gpg). An American All-Conference third-teamer, May leads the Roadrunners with six goals, just ahead of Michelle Polo, who has scored a goal in three of her last four outings. Bailey leads the team with 36 shots and five assists, while May tops UTSA in shots on goal with 16. Defensively, American All-Conference second-teamer Kessler is looking to move into sole ownership of the UTSA career GK wins record at 22 and has the UTSA defense ranking 60th nationally in goals-against-average (0.89) and 50th in save percentage (.822) – helped along by back-line anchor Kameron Kloza, who was the first UTSA player selected to the all-conference first team since 2022.
About the Rice Owls
Draws dropped the Owls into the No. 6 spot despite back-to-back 10-win seasons for Brian Lee’s squad. Down the stretch, Rice downed South Florida at home and then saw back-to-back draws against North Texas and East Carolina, ahead of a season-ending loss at Tulsa. That is not the energy the Owls brought into the tournament, taking their revenge with a 1-0 beating of Tulsa in the quarterfinal and moving on to a scoreless draw with second-seeded South Florida – advancing to Sunday’s final on a 6-5 PK shootout win.
The Owls are dangerous on the offensive side for their accuracy, at an American second-ranked (NCAA 36th) .506 SOG percentage, ringing up 1.7 goals per game on an average of 13.3 shots. Leading the way for Rice, last year’s American Offensive Player of the Year, grad student midfielder Leah Chancey is second in the conference with 10 goals (0.5 per game), taking a team-high 45 shots with 29 on-target shots and a .644 SOG. She also enters Sunday with a team-high eight assists. An All-Big South First Team honoree last year at Radford, midfielder Eileen Albers has five goals and a pair of assists. While the pair have the bulk of Rice’s goals, six other Owls have scored at least twice. Defensively, the Owls have seen teams put goals in the net in 14 games this season, notching a 1.30 team GAA and .788 save percentage, with the position anchored by converted defender Kirsten Ruf, who has 86 saves this season.
Series Information
Sunday will mark the 18th meeting between these teams but the first time in postseason play. It’s UTSA’s longest series dating back to the series opener at Rice in 2008. With a steady foundation of success, the Owls have a heady lead in the series at 13-3-1. Seven of the last eight meetings have been decided by one goal, excepting UTSA’s last win in Houston in 2023 by a 2-0 margin. Earlier this year, the Roadrunners and Owls came to a 1-1 draw in Houston – the first in the series. Naija Bruckner scored for Rice in just the ninth minute, but Polo netted a Bailey-assisted equalizer to make it 1-1 in the 40th minute.
UTSA Postseason History
After topping UAB and moving past Memphis, the Roadrunners hold a 9-6-2 record in conference tournament games, last making a league appearance in 2022, when UTSA swept past UAB (1-0, OT), North Texas (2-1) and Florida Atlantic (3-2) to produce the program’s first title and NCAA appearance since 2010. UTSA previously earned the Southland Conference Championships title as the 2010 squad went extra time in matchups with Stephen F. Austin (T, 1-1 2OT) and Southeastern Louisiana (W, 1-0 OT) to earn the program’s first title and NCAA postseason.
UP NEXT: The winner of Sunday’s matchup will earn the American Championships tournament title and the conference’s automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.
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