SAN ANTONIO – The UTSA soccer team (6-3-1, 1-1 AAC) heads back east for the biggest matchup of the year so far, taking on American Athletic Conference leader, No. 17 Memphis (5-1-1, 0-0-1 AAC), Thursday night at the Billy J. Murphy Soccer Complex. The Roadrunners will kick off with the three-time defending conference champions at 7 p.m. with the broadcast set to air on ESPN+.
Following the Action
Thursday’s huge road conference contest at the Billy J. Murphy Soccer Complex will air live on ESPN+ with Jeff Brightwell calling the action. Memphis Athletics will also provide Live Stats.
About the Roadrunners
Last week, the Roadrunners turned in a 1-0-1 record, including some huge road conference points with a commanding 2-0 victory at East Carolina in their last trip beyond the borders of the Lone Star State. Producing the best all-around team performance of the year so far, Tyler Coker and Sasjah Dade delivered goals for the UTSA victory. The pair secured AAC Player of the Week honors for both Offensive (Coker) and Defensive (Dade) awards. UTSA closed the week with a draw at home against Abilene Christian. In total, Coker provided two assists on the week, one in each contest. Defender Rylee Low also racked up two assists in setting the pathway to both scores at ECU on a pair of field-flipping passes.
Among UTSA’s 13 goals on the year, freshman Addy Johnson leads the team with three goals, scoring a pair against Central Arkansas to secure AAC Freshman of the Week laurels. Nine different Roadrunners have scored through 10 games. Michelle Polo and Jordan Walker both have three assists on the season to top the squad.
In the net, sophomore goalkeeper Jasmine Kessler is among the conference leaders and tied for 31st nationally with four solo shutouts on the season, ranks third in the AAC with an .800 save percentage and is fourth in the conference with a .737 goals-against-average. She’s got 28 saves so far with a 2.80 per game average, ranking sixth in the conference. With Kessler surrounded by a strong defensive supporting cast, UTSA holds opponents to just 3.7 shots on goal per outing with an AAC third-best .700 GAA.
The Roadrunners average 15.10 shots per game and have the AAC’s fourth-best shooting accuracy at .490.
About Memphis
Reaching as high as fifth in the national rankings, the Tigers are on track to a typical season in the 25th season under Brooks Monaghan. Recently carrying coach Monaghan over the career 300-win mark, Memphis is 3-0 at home in 2024, with a 0-0 draw at UAB and a 1-0 loss at a ranked Tennessee club the past two results.
With a solid start to her sophomore season, local forward Ashley Henderson leads the Tigers with four goals, in addition to two assists, matching her rookie season goal totals already. Japanese freshman Ai Kitagawa scored twice in eight minutes at Ole Miss and has three goals so far. 2023 AAC Midfielder of the Year and First Team All-Region honoree Momo Nakao is back and leading the Tigers with three assists through seven games, also chipping in a pair of goals. As a team, Memphis is shooting .462 and has the fourth-best scoring offense in the conference at 2.14 goals per game on 14.86 shots per game.
The Tigers keep opponents out of their attacking zone and have one of the lowest save averages in the league (1.24), notching the AAC’s fourth-best .714 GAA and .643 save percentage – at 11th AAC. Between the pipes, Memphis returns another top awardee in 2023 AAC Goalkeeper of the Year Kaylie Bierman, who boasts an 0.62 GAA in 2024, but a .692 save percentage and just nine saves. Last season, Bierman tallied 55 saves and a 0.64 GAA with an 18-2 record to her credit.
Series history
The Tigers have a 1-0 record in this short-lived series, meeting as conference-mates in The American for the first time last season. In that inaugural outing at Park West, UTSA cut the 12th-ranked Tigers’ shooting in half and applied heavy pressure from the opening kick, but Saorla Miller produced the game-winning goal in the waning moments of the first half as the Tigers held on for the 1-0 win.
A return to Memphis
Two players on the Roadrunners’ 2024 squad spent their last season on the Tigers roster before making their way to San Antonio, and are earning their spots in the UTSA lineup. Since arriving at UTSA, junior defender Zoë May (Ottawa, Ontario) has started all 10 games and only missed 65 total minutes of action, scoring one goal and logging a .600 SOG. Sophomore forward Lulie MacFarlane (Vancouver, British Columbia) has come on stronger lately, notching her first start and her first career goal, also shooting .600 in her nine games for the Roadrunners.
Texas vs. the World
In sharp contrast to most teams the Roadrunners run up against, Memphis does not have a single Texan on the roster – as opposed to UTSA’s 18 from the Lone Star State. A typically very international program with 11 players from abroad, Memphis has eight from Canada, two from Japan and one from Germany – while UTSA has five Canadians and a pair from England.
UP NEXT: It’s Salute to First Responders at Park West on Sunday as the Roadrunners host Rice with a 1 p.m. kickoff in a key in-state AAC matchup.
- UTSA -