For the third time in a week, the UTSA soccer team (10-5-6) made history during its first-ever appearance at the American Conference Championships, earning the program’s first American title and third overall conference championship with a 1-0 overtime victory over Rice (10-4-6) on Sunday at the Premier Sports Campus in Lakewood Ranch, Fla.
Junior goalkeeper Jasmine Kessler was named Most Outstanding Defensive Player. After hitting the championship game-winner, redshirt freshman midfielder Bri Carrigan was named Most Outstanding Offensive Player. In addition, freshman forward Brooklyn Bailey, senior midfielder Zoё May and redshirt sophomore defender Aaliyaiah Durden joined Kessler and Carrigan on the All-Tournament Team.
The championship game against Rice was a deadlock throughout regulation, though the Roadrunners had numerous promising opportunities. However, Rice goalkeeper Kirsten Ruf served up a championship-quality performance, registering nine saves.
Ruf’s biggest threat of the afternoon was Bailey, who fired off career bests of seven total shots and four shots on goal that were all stopped by Ruf. Her seven shots tied for the fourth-most in a UTSA game. The Roadrunners fired off 19 total shots with 10 on-target shots in regulation and overtime, to Rice’s 13 shots with five on goal. Kessler registered five saves for UTSA.
With regulation ending in a 0-0 draw, the Roadrunners and Owls went to the overtime period. A second overtime seemed almost inevitable. But in the closing moments of the extra period, Carrigan got the ball from Bryn Maxwell with an open lane down the middle of the field, beating one defender and firing a shot off her left foot that sailed over Ruf into the top left corner of the net with 1:23 left in overtime for her first goal of the season.
The Roadrunners earned their first conference championship since 2022 and their first since joining the American.
UTSA is now undefeated in conference tournament games since 2021, going 5-0-1 with two titles in the last two tournament appearances. This will send the Roadrunners to their third overall NCAA appearance and the first since 2022.
The championship victory came just four days after UTSA pulled off one of the most stunning upsets of the college soccer season in the pouring Florida rain.
The Roadrunners rallied from a two-goal deficit in the final 10 minutes to force overtime against Memphis, and went on to advance past the Tigers 3-1 on penalty kicks to reach the conference final. Memphis came into the matchup as the conference’s regular-season champion and the No. 3 team in the nation, boasting an undefeated 16-0-3 record.
With the win, the Roadrunners are the American Conference’s automatic qualifier for the NCAA Tournament.
UTSA will take on Texas Tech (13-2-4) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The game will be played at 6 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 14, at the John Walker Soccer Complex in Lubbock, Texas, and will air on ESPN+.
