University of North Texas Athletics
Mean Green Draw Texas A&M
11/5/2018 3:53:00 PM | Women's Soccer
DENTON — For the third time in the last four years, the North Texas soccer team is headed to the NCAA Women's Soccer Tournament. They will play Texas A&M in College Station, Texas, on Friday at 7:00 p.m. in the first round, the NCAA announced Monday afternoon.
"This is where we belong," said head coach John Hedlund. "We've had an incredible year with winning both the regular season and conference tournament championship. We've been ranked in the top 25 in the nation and have had an RPI in the top 25 as well. This game with A&M will be a good one."
On Sunday, the Mean Green (15-2-3) defeated Southern Miss 2-1 to claim the 2018 Conference USA Championship and earn automatic qualification into the NCAA Tournament. This is the program's sixth NCAA Tournament appearance and the fifth time in program-history it will face Texas A&M who earned a No. 3 seeding in this year's NCAA Tournament.
Texas A&M owns a 15-4-1 record and posted a 6-3-1 record in the SEC and were the No. 13 team in the nation at the end of the regular season. They lost in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament to No. 17 South Carolina, 2-1.
The last time the Mean Green faced the Aggies was on Sept. 20, 2015, North Texas lost a heartbreaker. Texas A&M was the No. 5 ranked team in the nation at the time and won 2-1 with a goal in the final seconds of the second overtime.
Senior Taylor Torres was a freshman that season and assisted on UNT's goal.
This year's first-round match pits two of the most successful coaches in NCAA history. North Texas' head coach John Hedlund and the Aggie's G Guerrieri are one of just three active coaches who have coached for over 20 years at one school and never had a losing season. Like Hedlund at UNT, Guerrieri is the only coach Texas A&M has known in its 25-year history.
"G and I are good friends and talk all the time," Hedlund said. "He's done amazing things down there and built an incredible program."
Mean Green fans looking to attend UNT's first round match can get tickets by calling 888-992-4443. General admission adult tickets start at eight dollars.
