Hannah Warnken was sitting in an ice bath in Arizona one evening in early December 2022, undergoing treatment after playing in a match with a club team.

Warnken was getting a live view of the present, but at the same time, was receiving a glimpse of what she hoped was the future of her soccer existence.

On a bitterly cold night in Fort Worth, UTSA more than held its own vs. No. 17 TCU in the opening round of the NCAA tournament before falling 3-1. The contest was tied at 1-1 with eight minutes left.

“I was cheering and screaming,” said Warnken, who was then a senior forward at Fort Bend Ridge Point near Houston and is now a freshman at UTSA. “It was so incredible to see that my team now, we were able to hold ourselves at such a high standard and such a high level.”

The standard will take on a newfound outlook when UTSA opens its season vs. Central Arkansas at 7 p.m. Thursday at Park West Complex.

Coming off one of its best seasons in history, including winning the Conference USA tournament title — their first league crown since 2010 — the Roadrunners now carry elevated aspirations into their season in the American Athletic Conference.

“We kind of put a target on our backs,” UTSA senior defender Alex Granville said. “That’s awesome, because we want the pressure, we want to thrive under the pressure. But we need to figure out how we’re going to deal with that pressure. I think looking at the bigger picture, it was a great step forward for our program.”

If the Roadrunners are to build off last year’s historic campaign, they will have to overcome key losses such as defender Kendall Kloza, goalkeeper Jil Schneider and midfielder Isa Hernandez to graduation and forwards Kiran Singh (Kansas State) and Anna Sutter (South Florida) to transfers.

UTSA returns five starters and 16 letter winners from a squad that a tear ago posted a 12-6-3 record and should get a boost from newcomers such as midfielders Sophie Morrin, Brittany Holden, Maddie Reynolds, Makela Solbak, Michelle Polo and Warnken, goalkeepers Jasmine Kessler and Isobel Herrod, forwards Tyler Coker and Thandie Reinkensmeier and defenders Peyton Godbey, Maci Geltmeier, Haley Lopez, Hollan Winton and Reagan Amberson. Godbey (East Carolina), Herrod (Oregon State) and Geltmeier (Louisiana Tech) are Division I transfers and Reinkensmeier hails from Germany.

“We talked about how excited we are to come in and train at a very high level,” Winton said. “It’s something that, honestly, I’m excited about. After all the hard work I’ve put in, I am more than excited to face the competition that we will be facing next year.”

On a sunny afternoon in late April, head coach Derek Pittman made it a key to get that point across. Following the end of the annual alumni match, with the finishing touches being put on the new field house nearby, he gathered current and past players at midfield for a photo. He brought along the Conference USA championship trophy.

“I am a firm believer that we are not here celebrating a championship, building this building, and having the success that we currently have without those players coming here beforehand,” Pittman said. “They took a risk back when nobody knew anything about UTSA, took a risk to come here and build something and do something that’s never been done. It’s very important to me for our players to understand that they’re standing on the shoulders and the foundation that these alums have built.”

Former players Brianna Livecchi and Anissa Munson were moved by the gesture. Munson, a former O’Connor standout, played at UTSA from 2011-2014, back when the team contested its matches at the school’s recreation field. Livecchi, a MacArthur graduate, played for the Roadrunners from 2013-16.

“It’s just really cool to see how the program has progressed over the years,” Livecchi said. “To come out of the alumni game to feel like a part of that is a cool experience. I liked that he touched on that it was through y’all years of hard work for us to get to this point. We never got to witness a conference championship, but just knowing that our hard work was recognized and noticed, was really sweet. I appreciated his words. It was just so surreal whenever they won the championship. It’s an exciting feeling.”

Cardinals looking for a rebound

A year ago, Incarnate Word was where UTSA is now. The Cardinals were coming off their best season as an NCAA member, advancing to the final of the Southland Conference tournament before falling 1-0 to Northwestern State (La.).

Coming up one win shy of making the NCAA tournament, and returning a strong nucleus of players, Incarnate Word had plenty of momentum.

Things, however, began to unravel when coach Emma Wright-Cates announced in June that she was leaving after four seasons to become an assistant coach at SMU. Marc Verriere, a local club and semi-pro coach, was named interim head coach shortly before the start of preseason workouts.

“A lot of us didn’t know what to do over the summer because we didn’t have a coach, and so we didn’t know what to expect in the fall,” junior forward Addison Rodriguez said.

The uncertainty carried over to the field. The Cardinals finished 3-10-3 and went from playing for a spot in the NCAA tournament to not even advancing to their conference tournament.

“It was kind of hard with the transition with the new coach,” Rodriguez said. “It was hard to have a trusting relationship because we didn’t know him very well. It made a lot of us lose motivation. We came off such a high season (in 2021), and to go from second to being second-to-last in the conference, our spirits were very crushed.”

Incarnate Word hired Jake Plant as coach in December 2022. He arrived from Eastern Illinois, where he led the Panthers to three Ohio Valley Conference tournament appearances in five seasons.

Plant’s impact was quickly felt, if nothing else but it provided stability to the program.

“The more we trained with him, the more we got to know him as a coach and a person, I think we trusted him more,” Rodriguez said.

That belief will get its first test when the Cardinals open their season vs. Rice at 6 p.m. Thursday at Benson Stadium. Rice won last year’s matchup 5-2, scoring the final three goals to snap a 2-2 draw midway through the first half.

Incarnate Word should be paced by forward Sierra Wannamaker, a senior from Madison, defenders Payton Adams and Ellie Mai Sanford, and midfielders Eve Clarkson and Abigail Wilson.

“The score, to us, doesn’t necessarily matter as much as how we play as a team,” Rodriguez said. “If we stick to our team principles, it’s going to be a good game.”

terrence@terrencesports.com
Twitter: @sa_terrence1