ROUND ROCK — Texas is leaving the Big 12 with the last laugh in women’s soccer.

Thanks to more brilliance from midfielder Lexi Missimo, an effective high press on defense and just plain hustle, the Longhorns beat BYU 3-1 Saturday in the Big 12 championship final at the Round Rock Multipurpose Complex.

Missimo, who has set program single-season records for goals, assists and points this fall, scored twice, with Holly Ward providing Texas’ insurance goal late in the second half.

It is the Longhorns’ first conference tournament title since 2007.

“This means everything,” said Missimo, who pushed her goal tally this year to 24, second-best in the nation. “This team has been putting in the work, and I’m just glad we got the result tonight.”

The win completed an impressive tournament run for Texas (15-4-2), which beat three of the four teams it had tied or lost to in regular-season Big 12 play. The Longhorns defeated No. 5 seed West Virginia 3-1 in the quarterfinals Monday and edged No. 1 seed Texas Tech 1-0 in the semifinals Wednesday.

“I think we were more mature” than in the regular season, said Texas coach Angela Kelly, whose squad fell to BYU 3-2 in the first meeting between the teams six weeks ago. “We’re really coachable and are quick to learn from our losses. And to be fair, I think those made us better.”

Missimo continued to dominate this year’s conference newcomers, as she’s scored twice each time as Texas has faced Houston, Central Florida and BYU.

Her first goal came less than two minutes into the match when she finished a cross from Ashlyn Miller, which came seconds after she stole the ball deep in Cougars territory.

BYU (16-2-3) tied the game on Brecken Mozingo’s strike from just inside the box a few minutes later, and the rest of the first half would be played at a frenetic pace with Texas’ aggressive press disrupting the Cougars most of the contest.

“It shows how the team has grown when you figure out how to defend higher up the pitch, and our counterpressing was fanstatic,” Kelly said.

Missimo calmly finished a penalty early in the second half after Trinity Byars was tripped inside the box to put the Longhorns ahead for good.

Ward’s goal in the 76th minute came off pure determination.

After a cross bounced off her inside the 6-yard box, she tracked down the Cougars player dribbling up the field, stole the ball and then returned inside the BYU box and fired a shot into the right side of the net.

“We had nothing to lose and everything to play for tonight,” said Texas goalie Mia Justus, who made five saves, including a diving one-handed grab in the second half that was highlight-reel worthy. “I think that showed in both the defense and offense were awesome.”

Now with 24 goals and 19 assists, Missimo, who almost certainly has a professional career awaiting her at some point in the next 14 months, is having a year for the ages. And Kelly said she hasn’t padded her stats against weaker teams.

“When she’s scoring goals and providing assists against teams like Tech and BYU, that kind of puts to rest the kind of player she is,” Kelly said.

Texas awaits its matchup in the NCAA Tournament, which will be revealed Monday, and after the past seven days, it has a slight chance to host a first-round game.

But whatever happens there, Texas has left the Big 12 a champion.

“The name across our jersey means everything to us,” Justus said. “We’re so privileged to be able to do this for the University of Texas, and I couldn’t ask for a better team.”

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas women's soccer team tops BYU 3-1 to win Big 12 championship