Following its victory over UNLV, the Sacramento State women’s soccer team challenged another team’s undefeated record in the form of the Texas Longhorns Sunday at Hornet Field.

With an early goal in the first half, the Longhorns (5-0) held on to defeat the Hornets 1-0 and bring the Hornets record to 3-2.

Early on in the game, Texas kept the ball on the it’s side of the field for the first five minutes. Sac State displayed what it believed to be too much respect for their opponents by not applying as much pressure on the ball.

“We gave them a little bit more time on the ball, backing off, giving them some space because we expected them to be very technical and speedy, which they were,” sophomore Mikayla Reed said. “But we definitely could compete with them and gave them too much respect from the get go and we should have just came at them with everything that we did the last 10 minutes of the game.”

Texas junior midfielder Katie Glenn scored, getting the ball just above Sac State freshman goalkeeper Aaliyah Fesili’s head and securing the lead with under 33 minutes left in the first half. Texas outshot the Hornets 6-3 before the second half began.

The Longhorns went into a 3-5-2 formation to try and take control of the center of the field during the second half. However, Hornets coach Randy Dedini said he was unfazed by the formation and continued applying pressure on the opposing team.

“The first 15 minutes they went into a 3-5-2 (formation) and I think it backfired on them,” Dedini said. “I think we were getting at them a little bit more and they didn’t fool us at all.”

Junior midfielder Caitlin Prothe along with freshmen midfielders Skylar Littlefield and Ariana Nino each had two shots attempted on goal. Freshman forward Kylee Kim-Bustillos pushed Sac State’s offense to keep the Longhorns on their toes in the second half.

“We had this little time of momentum that got interrupted by the water break, but we were just really tentative,” Bustillos said. “We really didn’t know how they were going to play in the beginning, so we probably played a little scared. In the second half, we decided to just come out there and play.”

Three corner kicks from Sac State came close to potential scores, but were all stopped by the Texas defense.

“There were definitely a lot of opportunities, especially all those corner kicks toward the end there,” Reed said. “We could have put any of those away.”

Feseli had three saves in the second half to stop Texas from extending its lead. With time dwindling down, the Longhorns slowed down their plays to prevent any scoring opportunities from Sac State and came out with the victory.

“Texas is a top team and it’s good for us to play games like this, so that we can kind of measure ourselves and see where we are,” Dedini said. “Games like this are a good measuring stick for us and it shows us that we’re right there and we’re ready to make that next step.”

Sac State will conclude its four game homestand against Cal at 2 p.m. Friday at Hornet Field.