In this era of portals and transfers, almost every collegiate team regardless of the sport must develop chemistry within the tight window of the offseason if it hopes to become a contender.

But for the Texas women’s soccer team, that type of cohesion has been at least a decade in the making.

Powered by a dozen athletes who played together for national championship club team Solar Soccer Club in the Dallas area, Texas brings an unusual amount of soccer symmetry into the 2023 season, which begins Thursday with a game on ESPN+ against Long Beach State. The No. 15 Longhorns, who are coming off a 15-3-4 year and a Big 12 regular-season title, hope to parlay that chemistry into a run at the program’s first NCAA title.

“Every team (at Texas) is vying for conference titles and getting to the Final Four and winning national titles,” said 12th-year head coach Angela Kelly, who guided Texas to its first Big 12 title since 2001. “And I think with the success of our athletic program over these past couple years, everybody is just all cylinders a go.”

Winning starts with winning in Dallas

Texas reached the NCAA Tournament for a fifth straight time on the strength of its players from North Texas. The squad makeup is definitely by design; Kelly says the Dallas-Fort Worth area is one of the hotbeds of youth talent in the nation and always a priority on the recruiting trail.

“Every college coach, every Power Five coach, that has an opportunity to get an in with the top players in America is trying to recruit Dallas. Everybody,” she said. “So since we've been here, we've understood — and I think every coach on this campus understands — you need to win Dallas. That's where the talent pool is in our sport and we're going to continue to pull from there.

“The 12 (players from Dallas) that we have have been tremendous. They've just been phenomenal players. They've taken the program to where I want it to be and where it needs to be, and this year is going to be really special.”

No one personifies the impact of Solar Soccer on the Texas program more than midfielder Lexi Missimo and forward Trinity Byars, housemates who have been linking up for goals since they were 7 years old. The two juniors, the only two Texas players named to the preseason All-Big 12 team, both committed together to the Longhorns as eighth graders. Since that day, they both said they’ve shared the goal of bringing Texas to national prominence.

“When we first committed, we knew we wanted to change the program,” said Byars, who’s from the Dallas suburb Richardson. “Making history (last year) really felt good. Now, we want to do more.”

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‘Mind-blowing’ connection between Byars, Missimo powers Horns

When it comes to scoring goals, it’s hard to do more than Byars and Missimo. Last season, Byars became just the second player in program history to earn the Big 12’s offensive player of the year award while setting the program’s new single-season record with 17 goals. Missimo, a native of Southlake northeast of Fort Worth, also broke a single-season school record with 15 assists and needs just 11 assists to become the school’s all-time leader.

Missimo likes to spread the ball around, as evident by her four assists to three different players — none of whom were Byars, by the way — in a 6-0 win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in an exhibition match last Saturday. But she admits that no one provides a better target than Byars.

“I just think we've been playing with each other for so long, so our chemistry is unreal,” Missimo said. “I just know where she is all the time on the field. I don't really need to even see where she is on the field; I know where she's going to be, and I know she's going to finish it.”

Byars said Missimo’s uncanny ability to scan the field and anticipate runs makes her job easy.

“She puts it in the right place every single time,” she said. “With her vision and her accuracy with her long balls, it’s right at my feet. I just have to put it home.”

According to Kelly, Byars and Missimo linked up for at least 120 goals during their club career.

“If I were to gather all the stats for you what they've done for the Solar Soccer club growing up, it's just mind-blowing,” she said. “It's like almost like a sixth sense just watching them move out there. I'll tell you one thing: I'm happy that they're on my squad and I'm not trying to prepare to play against them.

“I've coached for 27 years now, and I've had some All-American goal-scorers, (but) I have never had the type of tandem like Lexi and Trin. They're just really lethal.”

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Can returners, new faces help Texas defend Big 12 title?

Better yet, said Kelly, the pair also understands the importance of welcoming in the fresh faces joining the dazzling dozen from Solar Soccer. New goalie Mia Justus, the cousin of former U.S. men’s national team keeper Tim Howard, arrives from Florida State and has already emerged as a leader, Kelly said. Abby Allen (North Carolina), Hannah Waesch (Auburn), Éabha O’Mahony (Boston College) also transferred in from traditional powers and joined the starting lineup against A&M-Corpus Christi along with freshman Arianna Brothers.

“Trinity and Lexi are just really, really special and they're going to lead this team and they're going to carry us this fall, but the best thing about it is they have so much humility and understanding of the game tactically,” Kelly said. “It's not just the Lex and Trin show.”

But can all of the talent on the Texas team help the Longhorns defend their conference title? The Big 12 coaches don’t seem to think so; they voted conference newcomer BYU at the top of the preseason poll followed by TCU. Texas was a close third, much to the chagrin of Missimo.

“I think Texas should be the favorite because last year, we won the Big 12,” she said. “And we have some new players coming in, (who) I think will make a big difference. I think we'll have a better team than last year, in my opinion.”

Texas women’s soccer: Key dates in 2023

Thursday: Season opener at Long Beach State, 9 p.m.

Sunday: Home opener vs. Rice, 2 p.m.

Sept. 14: Big 12 opener at Baylor, 7 p.m.

Oct. 28-Nov. 4: Big 12 Tournament, Round Rock Multipurpose Complex

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Lexi Missimo, Trinity Byars power revamped Texas women's soccer team