IRVING, TX -- The Longhorns arrived at Cowboy Stadium Friday evening hungry to regain the LSA championship trophy that Texas A&M snatched last season. The SMU Mustangs saw the brunt of that passion.

The Texas defense swarms an SMU attackman

SMU scored the first two but UT clawed their way back to even the score at two by the end of the first quarter. From there, Texas scored often and without much hindrance, taking advantage of several Mustang miscues to go up 8-4 at the half.

The Mustangs' spirit was broken soon into the second stanza and disjointed goals by the Horns, as seen in the first, turned to some of the most beautiful combination masterpieces of the season. Head coach Noah Fink said after the game, "I'm impressed with the scrappy, opportunistic style of play we had today. I haven't seen that from our team all year."

Evans Swann led the team with four goals in the 15-6 wash, Tyler Nix and Stephen Brandewie tallied a pair of goals apiece, and Paul McCloud and Alex Kroviak each had a goal with two and one assists, respectively. Towers Wilen played three quarters and racked up eleven saves, while Phil West subbed the fourth and had a remarkable eight denials.

Saturday's final pitted the Longhorns against the archrival Texas A&M Aggies, who squeaked by North Texas 9-8 in their semi. Though UT scored first and played ahead for most of the first half, even leading 4-3 at the break, abysmal shooting soon caught up to the Horns. By the final horn, Texas had put away only six out of 44 total shots, for a 13.6% shooting clip.

Junior midfielder Stephen Brandewie drives to the cage

Texas broke down in the third period, allowing supporting Aggie players, not stars, to step up and put points on the board while failing to find a consistent answer. Team leaders tried to keep the Horns in it, as McCloud had two goals and an assist, Kroviak had seven ground balls and numerous dodges that led to scoring chances, and senior captain Ernst Leiss had seven groundballs and significant transition contributions in his final game wearing burnt orange. Wilen also recorded twelve saves.

The individual efforts just weren't enough though, as the Aggies rode to an 8-6 lead and then scored on an open goal late to make the final 9-6, taking the conference championship for the second consecutive year and advancing to the national tournament. The Longhorns finished the season 12-5 (8-2 LSA).

Coach Fink surmised that, "Sometimes when you win, you lose. We played our hardest and dominated most major aspects as well as the flow of the game, but just couldn’t convert. It's unfortunate that we won't be moving on, but our team, and especially our seniors, have nothing to hang their heads about."

by Aaron Motsinger

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