INDIANAPOLIS – The Texas A&M Aggies travel to Austin to play the No. 16 Texas Longhorns in an NCAA Women’s Soccer Division I Championship first round match Friday at Mike A. Myers Stadium. First kick is at 5 p.m.
Texas A&M drew an at-large bid to the NCAA Championship, the 27th invitation for the Maroon & White in the last 28 years.
The Aggies are 9-6-5 on the season and they are slotted at No. 40 in the RPI. The Maroon & White are led into battle by All-SEC performers Maile Hayes and Mia Pante. Hayes, a first-team forward, leads A&M with 23 points on eight goals and five assists. Pante, a second-team midfielder, has logged 13 points with three goals and seven assist.
Texas is the No. 7 seed in the UCLA Quadrant. The Longhorns own a 14-2-4 mark on the year, winning the Big 12 regular season crown with a 7-0-2 league ledger.
The Aggies own a 21-5-2 edge in the all-time series against Texas. The last meeting was also an NCAA Tournament first round match with the Maroon & White prevailing, 4-1, at Ellis Field in 2019.
Texas A&M and Texas have two common opponents on the season. Both teams topped Florida with Texas winning 3-2 in Austin and A&M prevailing 4-1 in Gainesville. The Longhorns played TCU to a 1-1 draw in Fort Worth while the Maroon & White dropped a 2-1 decision at Ellis Field.
The SEC had nine teams selected to the 64-team field, including Alabama as a No. 1 seed. Arkansas, Georgia, LSU, Mississippi State, South Carolina, Tennessee and Vanderbilt also earned bids. The tally matched a league best, equaling the total for 2017 and 2018.
This marks only the third time since 2010 the Aggies open NCAA Championship play away from Ellis Field, including the 2020 campaign when every match of the tournament was played in North Carolina.
The winner of Friday’s match advances to the second round to face either Duke or Radford at a yet to be determined site Friday, November 18. The Women’s College Cup is slated for December 2 and 5 in Cary, North Carolina.