SAN ANTONIO – During the spring 2025 offseason practices, the UTSA soccer team made some important progress on the field at the Park West Athletics Complex and in competition across the state. UTSA’s 2025 roster gained ground on integrating younger players and the playing style the Roadrunners will emphasize heading into the eighth year under head coach Derek Pittman, the third season in the American Athletic Conference and the program’s 20th overall season.
An area of emphasis to turn the corner heading into UTSA’s vicennial season was making opportunity of the changing of the guard, following the graduation of an extremely experienced senior class. That eight-player senior group accounted for over 22,500 combined minutes in 393 individual games over their careers and were at the core of driving UTSA to the two highest win percentages in school history, the 2022 Conference USA tournament title and the Roadrunners’ first NCAA postseason appearance since 2010. A defense-heavy senior class, that group also helped UTSA to the four best team defensive performances (via goals-against-average) in program history, topped by 2023’s 0.72 team GAA.
“The spring is all about development as individuals and as a team,” Pittman said. “We graduated quite a few influential players from the fall and this spring has been all about integrating the new players and providing opportunities for others to showcase themselves against a variety of opponents. Overall, this spring has been our biggest semester of growth since my first full spring in 2019. All of our players took massive steps forward both positionally and intelligently when pertaining to our style of play. Our team chemistry and cohesiveness on the field grew with each game. Everything was capped off with a fantastic team performance versus the Longhorns and we can’t wait to display this progress in front of our Park West faithful this coming fall season.”
Leading up to the spring semester, the Roadrunners went to work on the recruiting trail to reload, signing 14 very talented new Roadrunners for 2025-26. Among that group, five newcomers were able to begin integrating as part of the spring practices: Brooklyn Bailey, Emelie Ekman, Presley Rhodes, Taliyah Spain and Leah Varela.
Almost a clean slate approach for the coaching staff and team in one of the most positive and productive springs of Pittman’s tenure, the Roadrunners worked to fine-tune a very young roster that will feature 12 freshmen and another six redshirt freshmen, building around strong leadership from a smaller, but potent, four-player senior class of Zoe May, Rylee Low, Izzy Lane and Haley Lopez. The spring emphasis centered on individual player development and continuing to build the style of play and game model toward the program’s core of perpetual uptempo, attacking soccer with extremely aggressive pressing delivering on competitive toughness as the same blue-collar, scrappy team UTSA has developed under Pittman’s guidance.
After weeks on the practice field, the Roadrunners opened exhibitions on March 2 with cross-town action against Incarnate Word. When the Roadrunners and Cardinals met last regular season at Toyota Field, UTSA came out on top, 1-0. Balancing minutes and focusing on competitive toughness from whistle to whistle, the Roadrunners scored in the first minute and then added two set-piece scores to pull away from UIW to a 3-0 result. Though the total shots were even, the Roadrunners delivered five on goal and shot 63 percent to UIW’s 38.
Although the March 23 outing after spring break saw UTSA suffer a 3-0 setback against Houston at home, the game against the Big 12-based Cougars created opportunities in learning and demonstrating resilience across a three-period, 90-minute matchup. With the strongest group on the field through the first 30, the score remained 0-0. All of Houston’s goals came in the second period and the Roadrunners responded with a scoreless third period. Against a heavy-shooting Cougars team, UTSA came away with four saves and three blocked shots.
Returning to action during the following weekend, again on the road, UTSA traveled to San Angelo on March 29 to face defending Lone Star Conference Champion Angelo State – the Rams finishing 18th in NCAA Division II last season while reaching the second round of the NCAA Tournament and taking only two losses on the season. ASU gave UTSA a chance to prove their resilience and toughness, bouncing back from a Rams score in the opening five minutes to hold ASU otherwise scoreless and tack two goals on the board for a 2-1 road win.
Back in San Antonio on April 6 against St. Mary’s, the Roadrunners registered the most commanding result of the spring, as May scored twice with a third from Lane for the 3-1 victory in the final tune-up before the big finale. In running past the Rattlers, the Roadrunners created 16 shot opportunities, placing 10 on goal with a 63 percent accuracy.
On April 18 to wrap up the spring, the Roadrunners traveled to Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin to face the 21st-ranked Texas Longhorns, who won an SEC Championship and reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament last year. A culmination of all the efforts of the spring, UTSA prepared like any game in the fall and the Roadrunners used all the core components of the game model to play a very tough game with a slight 1-0 loss in Austin, performing at a high level that builds added confidence going into the fall.
The 2025 team returns to action for summer workouts beginning July 1 and the fall squad will fully report on July 28th, starting practice the following day. The Roadrunners will begin the exhibition season on Aug. 3 and open the regular season on Aug. 14 at Park West to formally kick off the program’s 20th season.
- UTSA -