🤙The Official Newsletter For UTSA Athletics

Good morning, Roadrunners Fam. Although we’re all beyond eager for the 2024 season to start, The AAC is eyeing the future. They’ve announced the scheduling model for conference games for the 2025 football season.

UTSA will host Army, East Carolina, Rice, and Tulane next season at the Alamodome. In 2025, the Roadrunners have road games at Charlotte, North Texas, South Florida, and Temple.

As for non-conference games, the ‘Runners will open the season at Texas A&M on Aug. 30 in College Station before hosting home Texas State on Sept. 6 and UIW on Sept. 13 at the Alamodome. UTSA will close out the non-league slate at Colorado State on Sept. 20 in Fort Collins.

⇢ Go here for more details. 🏈

What other ingredients do we have for the Brew today? Check it out below!

⚽️ Women’s soccer kicks off the season with a commanding win over Navy
🎾 Sasha Gozun has been named sixth head coach of UTSA Men’s Tennis
🤙🏼 And much, much more!

📈 STOCK UP

🔼 Navy’s Got the Blues. The UTSA Roadrunners soccer team (1-0) kicked off the 2024 campaign with a commanding victory over first-time opponent Navy (0-1) on Thursday night at the Park West Athletics Complex. The Roadrunners scored in both halves on goals by newcomers Zoё May and Kameron Kloza, while the Midshipmen snuck in a very late score for the 2-1 final.

"Navy was exactly what we thought they were—a really difficult opponent with a few really special players,” said Coach Derek Pittman. “Our players were prepared for what they saw, executed the things we asked of them, and competed their tails off in every moment.'“

The Roadrunners head into the weekend looking forward to the big crosstown matchup on Sunday, as UTSA makes its first appearance at San Antonio FC’s Toyota Stadium with the second-ever regular season matchup with UIW.

🔼 Pittman’s Pros. There are plenty of reasons for UTSA’s seventh-year head soccer coach, Derek Pittman, to be optimistic about the 2024 season, which began Thursday when the Roadrunners hosted Navy as a salute to the Armed Forces and took the “W” in game one.

The Roadrunners return 14 players from last year’s squad, including nine seniors. That veteran experience, coupled with the addition of seven NCAA Division I transfers, brings together a battle-tested group of players ready to attack the program’s second season as a member of the American Athletic Conference. 

“We are really relying on our experience this fall,” Pittman said. “We’re elated about that group of seniors coming back and the experience from the transfers that we picked up in January and May.”

🔼 Welcome to the Rock. UTSA senior offensive lineman Venly Tatafu has been selected for the Polynesian College Football Player of the Year Award watch list.

Tatafu is one of 96 players who made this year’s list for the award, which is presented annually to the most outstanding college football player of Polynesian ancestry who epitomizes great ability and integrity.

A key member of the UTSA offensive line, Tatafu started all 13 games last season, the first four at left guard before making the move out to left tackle for the final nine contests to help the offense pile up 5,421 yards (421.6 yards per game), including 3,248 passing and 2,531 rushing yards.

🔼 Courting Possibilities. UTSA Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Lisa Campos announced on Wednesday that Sasha Gozun has been named the sixth head coach of the UTSA men’s tennis program. Originally hailing from Orhei, Republic of Moldova, Gozun was a four-time American Athletic Conference Champion as a player. He takes the reins for the next era of Roadrunners tennis this month following a five-year assistant coaching stint at Furman—the last two seasons as associate head coach.

Fresh off his fourth consecutive SoCon semifinal appearance with Furman, Gozun proved a top-notch recruiter for the Paladins, helping to secure back-to-back Mid-Major Top 25 recruiting classes in 2022 (ninth) and 2023 (13th).

🔼  Mack is Back. Head volleyball coach Carol Price-Torok has announced the hiring of UTSA Athletics Hall of Famer McKenzie Adams, who will join the staff as an assistant coach ahead of the 2024 season.

Adams is set to enter her 11th season as a professional, joining the League One Volleyball Atlanta-based club for 2025, following stops in Puerto Rican, German, Italian, Turkish, and Japanese leagues. Her international experience includes over 20 competition wins, and she was named MVP of the German Supercup with SSC Palmberg Schwerin in the 2019-20 season.

Before competing internationally, she dominated for the Roadrunners, earning two AVCA All-American awards and two conference Player of the Year honors between the 2011-13 volleyball seasons.

🔼 Digging This Post. Get to know UTSA Assistant Volleyball Coach Maggie Cartwright!

🏐 Watch the full video here. 👀

🤔 UTSA TRIVIA

🤙 ONE BIG THING

Boerne to Win. Go, Boerne Little League!

Listen to UTSA Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Lisa Campos wishing them all the best on their Little League World Series journey.

Birds Up!

📬 SPREAD THE WORD

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📅 COMING SOON

Saturday 8/17
🏈 Fan Day @ 1:00 PM CST

Sunday 8/18
⚽️ Soccer vs. UIW @ 6:00 PM CST @ San Antonio FC’s Toyota Field | Tickets

Saturday 8/31
🏈 First Football Game vs. Kennesaw State @ 2:30 PM CST ESPN+

⇢ Go here for all the summer camps being offered by UTSA Athletics🌞

🤙🏼 Go here for the full UTSA Athletics Calendar

🎉 TRIVIA ANSWER

Answer: In 2022, head soccer coach Derek Pittman led the Roadrunners to the Conference USA Championship.

Last season – its inaugural in the American Athletic Conference – UTSA was one of the league’s top defensive programs, ranking second in goals-against-average (0.72 GAA) and allowing the second-fewest goals in the conference (13). 

🤙🏼 It’s Friday, y’all!