Lapomarda’s Late Goal Sends Texas Soccer to SEC Championship in Double OT Thriller

Texas Women’s Soccer is heading to the SEC Championship in their first season in the conference thanks to a last minute kick from Texas native Lauren Lapomarda in a double OT thriller.

In a match that lived up to the SEC’s Motto “It Just Means More.” Texas punched its ticket to the SEC Championship in its first season in the conference with a thrilling 2-1 double-overtime win over top-seeded Arkansas.

Texas fifth-year defender Lauren Lapomarda’s golden goal in the 108th minute sealed the deal, lifting the Longhorns past the Razorbacks and sending them to their first SEC final.

Lapomarda, a Prosper, Texas native, seized her moment from nearly 30 yards out, lofting a perfectly placed shot over Arkansas freshman goalkeeper Keegan Smith. The game-winner, only the fourth goal of her career, will undoubtedly be etched into Texas soccer history, delivering the Longhorns their first-ever spot in the SEC Championship.

“Shoutout to the team; everyone did a phenomenal job. You have to give credit to Arkansas, too. They are a great team; top five team in the country and we are grateful they gave us a great battle. We knew we had to get something going and start putting the pressure on them. I was going and got the ball and thought, ‘Why not me?’, ‘Why not us?’. ‘Why not Texas?’ I saw their keeper playing up and noticed the back post and said, ‘Why not?’

Twenty days after these two teams combined for a seven-goal showdown in Austin, Thursday’s match proved to be a much tighter contest. Arkansas struck first in the 16th minute with a one-timer from Kennedy Ball, but Texas responded in the 39th minute when a Razorback own goal leveled the score. From that point on, both defenses went to work, led by Texas senior goalkeeper Mia Justus, who kept her team in the game with a career-high 14 saves, including several crucial stops late in the match.

The win not only propels Texas into the SEC final but also continues a series of milestones for the program. Justus’s 14 saves set a record for the most in a postseason match by a Texas goalkeeper and brought her season total to 15 wins, tying her for fourth on Texas’s single-season win list.

According to Texas Athletics, Thursday night marked the second consecutive season that the Texas Longhorns have toppled a top-five nationally ranked team in the semifinals of a conference tournament. In 2023, unranked Texas defeated then-No. 4 Texas Tech, 1-0, in the Big 12 Conference Championship semifinals.

Texas (15-3-2) now shifts its focus to Sunday’s championship match against fourth-seeded South Carolina.