Texas Soccer Faces No. 1 Vanderbilt in the SEC Tournament Quarterfinals in Pensacola

PENSACOLA, Fla. — Texas soccer's SEC Tournament run reached its hardest possible test on Tuesday afternoon: a quarterfinal against No. 1 Vanderbilt at Ashton Brosnaham Soccer Complex, which kicked off at 4:30 p.m. Central. The ninth-seeded Longhorns advanced on Sunday evening by outlasting eighth-seeded Mississippi State in a penalty-kick shootout, 5-4, after 110 scoreless minutes — a contest that officially goes down as a tie — and remain unbeaten across their four SEC Tournament appearances, Texas Athletics reported.

Vanderbilt is the tournament's top seed and, by its own athletics site's account, something close to a historic one. The Commodores finished the regular season 16-0-1 (9-0-1 in the SEC) — the first undefeated regular season in program history and only the second in SEC history, after South Carolina in 2016. They are ranked No. 1 in both national polls, stand second in the country in goals per game (3.35) and first in assists (3.35), and senior forward Sydney Watts has 15 goals and five assists for 35 points, sixth in the nation.

The rematch carries a fresh wound. Vanderbilt clinched the SEC regular-season title on Oct. 23 with a 5-0 victory over Texas — the Longhorns' heaviest defeat of the season — and is hunting the first regular-season-and-tournament double in the SEC since Florida in 2015. For first-year Texas head coach Margueritte Bates and her team, Tuesday's quarterfinal is the flip side of Sunday's survival: a free swing at the No. 1 team in the country, with nothing about their tournament life left to protect.

The winner advances to Thursday's semifinal at 4:30 p.m. Central against the winner of Kentucky–Arkansas, and the championship match is set for Sunday at 1:30 p.m. This is a live file: no score is reported here because none had been verified from the sources read at filing time. The result — and what it means for Texas's NCAA Tournament position — files in this station's next cycle.